Toombs Names District Young Georgia Authors Winners

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Toombs County Schools has selected the winners of the FY26 Young Georgia Authors District Competition, recognizing outstanding student writing across all grade levels.

Each year, the Young Georgia Authors competition helps students to foster a love of writing and celebrate students achievement and creativity. For the competition, students can submit a selection of writing of their choice, as entries range from short stories, to poetry, to essays, to personal narratives and more. These entries are judged based on their expression of ideas, language use, and unique perspective and voice. Toombs County Schools students recently submitted writings that competed against other students in their grade to determine who would represent Toombs County Schools in the First District Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) regional competition – which will feature entries from Appling County Schools, Bryan County Schools, Bulloch County Schools, Camden County Schools, Candler County Schools, Emanuel County Schools, Evans County Schools, Glynn County Schools, Jeff Davis County Schools, Liberty County Schools, Long County Schools, McIntosh County Schools, Savannah-Chatham County Schools, Screven County Schools, Tattnall County Schools, Vidalia City Schools, and Wayne County Schools.

District Young Georgia Authors winners are: • Kindergarten: Daniel Toler, Daniel the Cat (Toombs Central Elementary) • 1st Grade: Blakely Lamb, The Lost Hat (Toombs Central Elementary) • 2nd Grade: Ellie Williams, Kelly’s Lost Puppy (Toombs Central Elementary) • 3rd Grade: Mariel Luna-Munoz, Great White Sharks (Lyons Upper Elementary) • 4th Grade: Jane Coleman, Where Were the Stars? (Toombs Central Elementary) • 5th Grade: Ivy Wilkes, The Stolen Crown (Lyons Upper Elementary) • 6th Grade: Allie Lawson, A Whisper of the Hotel (Toombs County Middle School) • 7th Grade: John Peterson, What is War, A Villanelle (Toombs County Middle School) • 8th Grade: Fatima Oliveros Barcenas, Winter (Toombs County Middle School) • 9th Grade: Ryleigh Hester, The New Hero in Town (Toombs County High School) • 10th Grade: Alona Wright, Freedom Painters (Toombs County High School) • 11th Grade: Sophie Tillman, The Exclusive (Toombs County High School) • 12th Grade: Brandon Badie, The Blessing that Asked Nothing (Toombs County High School) These students’ works will now be evaluated by a panel of judges in the First District RESA regional competition and potentially the state competition.