(upbeat music) - And it's time for PBS Kids Utah's annual Writers and Illustrators Contest.

This year's theme is animal tales.

Education Program Manager Annie Frazier is here to tell us more.

Hi, Annie.

- Hi, Mary.

- Thanks for being here.

This is one of my favorite things we do for kids.

I've always loved it.

So when may children submit those stories?

- So stories can be submitted online or they can be mailed in between now and May 1st, and they can come in in English or in Spanish.

- That's great, and I know they illustrate their own.

- Yes.

- They write their own, and how do the judges decide who wins and what are the categories?

- So we judge them by grade and we have some community experts who come and there is a rubric that the judges follow.

And mainly we're just looking to nurture the next generation of storytellers for children to be excited about what stories they can come up with and the pictures that go along with them.

And we like to celebrate that.

- It's wonderful, and you brought some of them that you should show us.

They are so cute.

This one, I think is from a 9-year-old.

- Yes, and this one is called The Moon and Earth by Evelyn, who's in third grade.

And another one over here.

Be your own cactus by a a fifth grader named Anastasia.

So once the winners are picked, we put the stories online for people to read them and to look at them.

And then they're typed and framed to go on a traveling exhibit with the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.

And then also to stay here in our hallways for a year to enjoy them.

- Oh, it's great, it's so cute.

And I know you offer a lot of resources for anyone out there on the web.

- Yes, so we have resources on our website that a teacher can do or a parent can do.

They talk about the stages of writing a story, the beginning, the middle, the end, the plot, all of those different things.

And they can do them as a class or they can do 'em at home and submit.

- Wonderful, it's a great thing you do.

And thanks so much for being here.

- Thank you.

- And if you would like to know more about PBS Kids Utah's 2025 Writers and Illustrators Contest, it's open now through May 1st for submissions.

Go to pbsutah.org/writers pbsutah.org/writers.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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