2026 WV Young Writers Day Photo Gallery (Click Here)
Pictured above is our 2026 keynote speaker, Rosalie Haizlett. Rosalie Haizlett is an illustrator and author whose work calls attention to the hidden and otherworldly aspects of the natural world. Haizlett has completed artist residencies at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the National Audubon Society, and with the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History. She is the recipient of the Eckelberry Fellowship for distinguished nature illustrators from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Audubon Magazine, and Orion Magazine. The author of Watercolor in Nature and Tiny Worlds of the Appalachian Mountains, she lives on the edge of Monongahela National Forest in Elkins, West Virginia.
The 2026 Young Writers Day was held on May 8, 2026 to recognize the outstanding West Virginia writers from this year’s contest. Students, teachers, and county coordinators gathered at the University of Charleston to participate in an awards ceremony and a variety of writing workshops!