Proud to Be from Middle Tennessee: By the Winners of the Nashville Write-Off (Students from 6-18 Share Their Favorite Things to Do in Middle Tennessee)

The Nashville Scene created “Calling All Kids . . . The Nashville Write-Off” in 1996 as a way to inspire young writers. This year, the weekly paper asked its budding authors to address the following topic: “My Favorite Things to Do in Middle Tennessee.”

Entry forms were run in the Scene over several weeks, and were also distributed at various malls, pizza joints, and at least one optometrist’s office. Soon, essays were flooding our offices. After a panel of judges was convened to review the ...