Outreach .

KCPT’s 2013 PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest encourages kids to GO! Write! KCPT is once again encouraging elementary school students to stretch their creative wings by hosting the contest in the Kansas City region. For more than 16 years thousands of kids in grades K-3 have participated in this annual local and national contest. Stories can be mailed to the station or submitted online. Contest deadline is April 10, 2013. Local winners will be announced in late April and national winners will be announced in summer 2013.

Entry forms can be downloaded here.

Learn more about the contest guidelines and awesome prizes.

A panel of America’s foremost children’s authors, illustrators and content experts will serve as honorary judges for the national PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest. The 2013 honorary judges include:

• Lisa Henson: As Chief Executive Officer of The Jim Henson Company, Henson serves as an executive producer of Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train, both currently airing daily on PBS KIDS, and Pajanimals, a musical puppet series airing daily on Sprout.

• Jeff Kinney: As a New York Times bestselling author, online game developer and designer, Kinney has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. His seventh book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, is the biggest print book of 2012. His book series has over 83 million in print worldwide, translated into more than 40 languages. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives in southern Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.

• Kate Klimo: As Vice President and Publisher of the Random House/Golden Books Group, she has been responsible for extending the Seuss brand into new formats including board and novelty books, and publishing non-fiction celebrations of Dr. Seuss’s life and works. Klimo has nearly 30 years of experience at Random House; more than 15 of them spent working on All Things Seuss. She is also the production executive of The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! Kate is the author of many books for young readers, including 12 titles in the Cat in the Hat’s Learning Library series. She has also written for young adults (The Centauriad Series) and has a new series for children, Dog Diaries, launching in January 2013.

• Jarrett Krosoczka: Two-time winner of the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year in the Children’s Choice Book Awards, author and illustrator for sixteen published books – ten picture books and six graphic novels. He has seen his work recommended by national publications like Newsweek, The New York Times and USA Today. His Punk Farm and Lunch Lady series are also in development to be feature films.

• Susan Meddaugh: Author and illustrator of Martha Speaks, the best-selling book series, as well as a creative producer of the award-winning PBS KIDS series of the same name. Susan grew up in New Jersey, studied art and illustration, and now lives in Massachusetts with her family — including her dogs of course.

• R.L. Stine: As one of the best-selling children’s authors in history, he has sold over 350 million books that have been read all over the world including Goosebumps – one of the best-selling children’s series of all-time. R.L. lives in New York City with his wife Jane and his dog Minnie.