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Writing Competitions

Young Arts
YoungArts identifies exceptional young artists, amplifies their potential, and invests in their lifelong creative freedom. Categories span writing, dance, music, photography, and more. 
>Submissions Open: Currently Open
>Submissions Due: October 13. 2023

Rachel Carson Intergeneration Sense of the Wild
Contest entries are required to be from an intergenerational team of 2 or more individuals from different generations. Why? Team members who are older individuals (parents, grandparents, teachers) provide a “sense of wonder” to encourage, educate and enrich the experiences in nature of young team members.
>Submissions Open: Currently Open
>Submissions Due: November 16, 2023

NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship
National Society of High School Scholars competition for poetry and fiction.
>Submissions Open: Currently Open
>Submissions Due: October 2, 2023

Scholastic Writing Competition
The nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. Thirty different categories for submission!
>Submissions Open: September 1st
>Submissions Due: December TBA

Bennington Writer’s Awards
Designed to promote excellence in writing at the high school level. Categories for poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
>Submissions Open: September 1st
>Submissions Due: November 1st

ACT-SO
ACT-SO inspires young Black students to expand their horizons and sharpen their skills in 32 competitive fields.
>Submissions Open: TBA
>Submissions Due: TBA

Memphis Soul Prize
A city-wide poetry competition about Memphis, Tennessee.
>Submissions Open: March TBA
>Submissions Due: March TBA

Bow Seat Ocean Awareness
Ocean Awareness Contest is a platform for young people to learn about environmental issues through art-making and creative communication, explore their relationship to a changing world, and become advocates for positive change.
>Submissions Open: September TBA
>Submissions Due: June TBA

Leonard L. Milberg High School Poetry Prize [Juniors Only]
The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize recognizes outstanding work by student writers in the 11th grade in the U.S. or abroad. Contest judges are poets on the Princeton University creative writing faculty.
>Submissions Open: TBA
>Submissions Due: April TBA

Lewis Arts Center Ten-Minute Play [Juniors Only]
Eligibility for this annual playwriting contest is limited to U.S. or international students in the eleventh grade. The jury consists of members of the Princeton University Program in Theater faculty.
>Submissions Open: TBA
>Submissions Due: April TBA

Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest
The Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest provides scholarships, prizes, and recognition for the best poems submitted by young women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school.
>Submissions Open: TBA
>Submissions Due: October TBA

VSA Playwright Discovery Program
Young writers with disabilities (generally, ages 14-19) enrolled in high school are invited to submit a ‘ten-minute script’. Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration of two students that includes at least one student with a disability.
>Submissions Open: TBA
>Submissions Due: TBA

Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize [Sophomore & Junior Young Women Only]
The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize, created in 2007 to recognize outstanding young poets, is open to high school sophomores and juniors.
>Submissions Open: September TBA
>Submissions Due: September TBA

Poets & Writers Magazine Contests, Grants & Awards List [Searchable]