Four students in PEGS - Program for Exceptionally Gifted Students and Rose Acres fifth grader Nafas Parsang held a book signing after they were named winners and finalists in the St. Louis Writers Guild Young Writers Contest and had their stories published in a collection.

Held from August to October, young writers are given a first line and then they provide the next 500 to 1,500 words. Out of the hundreds of entries received, fourth graders Donald McCullough, Jackson McCullough and Adelaide Pagel, and fifth graders Parsang and Eva Pulley had their stories selected.

At Friday’s event, all of the students received a certificate and a gift bag with their own book from the Writers Guild. The students signed each copy and read aloud their stories that began with the opening line of "When the door opened ..."

Meet the authors:

Fifth grade:

• Nafas Parsang, finalist: “My First Violin Performance”
• Eva Pulley, honorable mention: “Doors of Chance”

Fourth grade:

• Donald McCollough, finalist: “The Alien Abduction”
• Jackson McCollough, first place: “The Water World”
• Adelaide Pagel, finalist: “Reverse”

PEGS students are taught by Ms. Robin Chang and Ms. Tracey Robinson and Parsang’s fifth grade teacher is Ms. Nicole Youngquist.

St. Louis Writers Guild, founded in 1920, has always supported young writers. The Young Writers Awards, part of the Apprentice Club programming, was created in 2012 to continue the writers guild legacy of encouraging tomorrow's authors.

The anthology by the St. Louis Writers Guild is available on Amazon in two formats. A paperback copy is $5.99 and an ebook edition is just $0.99. Order your copy here: https://amzn.to/3edoEtK

View photos from the event here: https://bit.ly/stlyoungwriters21