Lockwood-Mathews Mansion To Launch 2018 Young Writers Competition

NORWALK, CT — The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is launching its fifth annual writing contest. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum/Ernest Hemingway/Young Writers’ Competition will start on May 1 and end on June 8, 2018 with an awards presentation on Nov. 18.

The competition, entitled "The Mansion’s Mystery Trunk," is a voluntary writing contest for third and eighth graders, according to a release. Students will be asked to use their imagination to write an essay about the contents of a mid-to-late 19th century trunk serendipitously found during a tour at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum.

What could the trunk contain? Who owned it? What do the contents tell us about the owner’s life and the story behind the objects in the trunk? While the story will be fictional, the objects imagined will have to be connected to real life events and the history of the Mansion, Norwalk and mid-to-late 19th century America.

The stories will be picked up from contestants and their teachers on Friday, June 8 and competition winners will be notified by mid-September. Competition winners and their families will be guests of honor at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday, Nov. 18 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Requirements for the competition will be tailored to third and eighth graders and posted on the museum’s website and on flyers.

For more information on LMMM’s Young Writers’ Competition and school tours please contact Education Coordinator Philip Libby at education@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or at 203-838- 9799 (ext. 6).

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is located at 295 West Avenue in Norwalk. Student tours are offered February through December. For more information on tours and programs, please e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com or call 203-838- 9799.

Visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com for further information.

Photo credit: Susan Gilgore