Writing Competition

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ Trailblazer Committee is delighted to announce its 7^th Annual Writing Competition. Texas-area fourth and fifth graders are invited to submit an essay or poem about “The Lost Star of Texas.”

The Lost Star of Texas
A star has fallen from the Texas sky. You are chosen to return it before sunrise. What adventures do you have along the way?

Now write your story!
Use your imagination to write an essay or poem inspired by The Lost Star of Texas.

Entries may be submitted to our Contest Portal beginning September 14, 2026. All submissions must be received by October 23, 2026. Please complete our entry form here to include with your submission. More information regarding our rules and regulations can be found here.  For more information please see our Resource Library. Winners will be announced on this page on January 25, 2027 and will be invited to a winners’ reception during the Houston Rodeo in March, 2027 to receive their trophy belt buckle and prizes.

The contest is open to Texas 4^th and 5^th graders. Entries will be judged by committee volunteers in two, double blind rounds on the following criteria: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions and Presentations. Additional scoring resources are available in the contest portal.

After screening for artificial intelligence, top entries will be reviewed by an education panel to confirm they met all criteria for the competition prior to final judging. The final round of judging will be conducted by a panel of celebrity judges. The 2026 celebrity judges were Valerie Koehler, owner of Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, TX; April Lopez, children’s book author and baker in Diboll, Texas; April M. Salazar children’s book author and podcaster, in Houston, TX; Melissa Coyle, children’s book author in Houston; TX, Sharoma Scurry-Graves, children’s book author in Houston TX; and Van Garrett, poet and novelist in Wharton, TX.

Read the 2026 winning essay entries here, poetry entries here, and Spanish entries here.