23 Writing Competitions for High School Students
What’s Covered:
- Why Should You Enter a Writing Competition?
- Writing Competitions for High School Students
- How Do Writing Competitions Affect My Admissions Chances?
Do you dream of writing the next great American novel? Are you passionate about poetry? Do you aspire to become a screenwriter? No matter what genre of writing you’re interested in—whether it’s fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or something else entirely—there’s a writing competition focused on it.
Writing competitions provide great motivation to put pen to paper (or finger to key). Moreover, they’re an excellent step toward getting published, and can ultimately start you on the path to becoming a professional writer.
Why Should You Enter a Writing Competition?
One of the best ways to improve your writing is simply to write—and competitions provide an excellent impetus to do so. Writing competitions also serve as an introduction to what life is like for many writers; participants entering writing competitions will receive a prompt or must think of an original idea, compose a piece of work, and submit it for review.
Another benefit of entering a writing competition for high schoolers is that many offer cash awards and scholarships, which can be used to help with the costs of college.
Additionally, many writing competitions are run by colleges and universities, so submitting them is a great way to introduce faculty to yourself and your work. If you win an award—especially a prestigious award—it can significantly improve your odds of college acceptance.
Writing Competitions for High School Students
1. The Adroit Prizes for Poetry and Prose
Type: Poetry and Prose
Submission Fee: $15
Prize: $200
Deadline: May 1, 2023
Eligibility:
- All secondary and undergraduate students
Guidelines:
- Each student may send up to five total submissions across the genres of poetry and prose
- Each poetry submission may include up to six poems (maximum of ten pages single-spaced). Each prose submission may include up to three works of fiction or creative nonfiction (combined word limit of 3,500 words; excerpts are acceptable).
Adroit Prizes are awarded to emerging high school and college writers in two categories: poetry and prose. Winning pieces are considered for publication in the Adroit Journal and winners receive an award of $200. The 2023 judges are Natalie Diaz and Ocean Vuong.
2. Ten-Minute Play Contest
Type: Plays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: N/A
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: Students in the eleventh grade in the U.S. (or international equivalent of the eleventh grade)
Guidelines: Applicants may submit only one play (10 pages maximum)
The Ten-Minute Play Contest is put on by Princeton University’s Lewis Center of the Arts. Applicants are allowed to submit one play that is no longer than 10 pages. Their submissions are judged by members of Princeton University’s Theater Program faculty.
3. Ayn Rand Anthem and The Fountainhead Essay Contests
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prizes:
- Anthem: $2,000
- The Fountainhead: $5,000
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility:
- Anthem: Grades 8-12
- The Fountainhead: Grades 11-12
Guidelines:
- Anthem: Essays must be written in English only and between 600 and 1,200 words in length, double-spaced
- The Fountainhead: Essays must be written in English only and between 800 and 1,600 words in length, double-spaced
In this essay competition, students pick one of three prompts about a topic related to Ayn Rand’s books and write an essay that goes through three stages of grading. Students are graded on their clarity, organization, understanding, and ability to stay “on topic.”
4. Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize
Type: Poetry
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $500-$1,500
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: Students must be in the 11th grade in the U.S. or abroad
Guidelines: Applicants may submit up to 3 poems
The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize is another contest run by Princeton University’s Lewis Center of the Arts. Winners are chosen by judges who are both poets and members of Princeton University’s creative writing faculty. Three monetary awards are available.
5. World Historian Student Essay Competition
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $500
Deadline: May 1, 2023
Eligibility: Students enrolled in grades K–12 in public, private, and parochial schools, and those in home-study programs
Guidelines: Essays should be approximately 1,000 words
Winners of this competition receive a $500 prize along with a free yearlong membership to the World History Association. To apply, you must submit an approximately 1,000-word essay responding to the following prompt:
- Submit an essay that addresses the following topic and discusses how it relates to you personally and to World History: Your view of a family story related to a historical event or your personal family cultural background, or an issue of personal relevance or specific regional history/knowledge.
6. Jane Austen Society of North America Essay Contest
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $250-$1,000
Deadline: June 1, 2023
Eligibility: Open to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students
Guidelines:
- Must be submitted by the student through the official Essay Contest Submission website
- Entries may include a statement about the student’s mentor; however, a mentor statement is not required
- The essay must be 6-8 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page
- The essay must use MLA documentation, including a Works Cited page and parenthetical citations in the body of the text. Use endnotes only for substantive notes. Source material that is directly quoted, paraphrased, or summarized must be cited. Quotations from the Jane Austen work under discussion should be cited as well.
The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest is an annual writing competition aimed at fostering an appreciation for its namesake’s work. The contest is broken down into three divisions—high school, college/university, and graduate school.
First-place winners are awarded a $1,000 prize along with free registration and lodging for two nights at JASNA’s Annual General Meeting—smaller monetary awards are also given to second- and third-place essayists.
This year’s essay topic:
- In Pride and Prejudice and Jane Austen’s other novels, we see proposals and marriages that are motivated by love, as well as those that are better described as arranged marriages or marriages of convenience. Many cultures today also expect arranged marriages (not the same as forced). In your essay, compare and discuss the different types of marriages or courtships found in the novels, whether those relationships are new or longstanding.
7. Bennington College Young Writers Awards
Type: Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $250-$1,000
Deadline: November 1, 2023
Eligibility: Students in grades 9-12
Guidelines:
- Poetry: A group of three poems
- Fiction: A short story (1,500 words or fewer) or one-act play (run no more than 30 minutes of playing time)
- Nonfiction: A personal or academic essay (1,500 words or fewer)
Bennington College has a strong history of developing writers—it’s produced twelve Pulitzer Prize winners, three U.S. poet laureates, and countless New York Times bestsellers—and the Bennington College Young Writers Awards celebrate this legacy.
In addition to offering cash awards to winners and finalists in all three categories, winners and finalists who apply and are accepted to Bennington College are also eligible for substantial scholarships.
8. Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder/Sense of the Wild Contest
Type: Poetry and Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: N/A
Deadline: November 16, 2023
Eligibility:
- You are required to have a team of 2 or more people
- The team must be intergenerational
Guidelines: Maximum length of 500 words (approximately 2 pages)
This unique writing competition requires that entries must be submitted by a team of two people from different generations—for example, a high school student and a teacher. Contestants can compete in a number of categories and themes, each with unique submission requirements.
9. NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship
Type: Fiction and Poetry
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $2,000
Deadline: October 2, 2023
Eligibility: Rising high school students graduating in 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, and recently graduated 2023 seniors
Guidelines:
- Poetry: Students may submit their original poetry in any style, from formal verse to free verse to experimental. The poem should be formatted as you wish it to appear in the publication.
- Fiction: Students may submit a piece of short fiction, which must be no more than 5,000 words and should not be single-spaced. The entry may be any genre of the student’s choice, including graphic novel or story.
- Must submit educator recommendation, academic resume, and current transcript with application
Winning works for this competition are chosen based on their creativity, technique, expression, and originality. Three winners are chosen in each category and each winner receives a $2,000 prize.
10. John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $100-$10,000
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: The contest is open to United States high school students in grades 9-12, U.S. students under the age of twenty enrolled in a high school correspondence/GED program, and U.S. citizens attending schools overseas.
Guidelines:
- Essays can be no more than 1,000 words but must be a minimum of 700 words. Citations and bibliography are not included in the word count.
- Essays must have a minimum of five sources.
The prestigious John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest is one of the most recognizable and prestigious writing competitions for high schoolers in the nation. Essays for the contest are required to describe an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917. The first-place winner of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Contest takes home a $10,000 award and second place receives a $3,000 prize.
11. YoungArts National Writing Competition
Type: Arts
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: N/A
Deadline: Opens June 2023
Eligibility: 15- to 18-year-old visual, literary, or performing artist based in the United States
Guidelines: To be released
YoungArts supports talented young artists between the ages of 15 and 18 (or grades 10-12) in 10 disciplines, including writing. Applicants can submit entries in six genres—creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story, and spoken word.
12. SPJ/JEA High School Essay Contest
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: $5
Prize: $300-$1,000
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: All students enrolled in grades 9-12 in U.S. public, private and home schools within the United States
Guidelines:
- The essay should be 300-500 words
- Entries may be typed or handwritten but must be double-spaced
This high school writing contest is presented by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Journalism Education Association (JEA) to increase awareness of the importance of independent media.
Last year’s prompt was:
- While consumers are drawn toward tweets and sound bites, how can journalists tell more of the story without losing readers’ interest?
13. VSA Playwright Discovery Program Competitions
Type: Plays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: N/A
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: High school students with disabilities
Guidelines:
- 10-minute script
- Entries may be the work of an individual student or a collaboration between two students that includes at least one student with a disability
This writing competition, presented by the Kennedy Center, is open to students ages 15-18 (or enrolled in high school) with disabilities. Writers may submit a “ten-minute” script in any genre, including plays, musicals, multimedia, video, film, TV, and podcasts.
Entries can be the work of an individual or the product of collaboration—provided that at least one of the collaborators has a disability. Multiple winners are chosen and given the chance to work with industry professionals, attend Kennedy Center professional development activities, and participate in networking opportunities.
14. Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest
Type: Poetry
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $350
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: Women who are sophomores or juniors in high school or preparatory school
Guidelines: No more than two poems by any one student may be submitted
For almost six decades, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest has provided recognition, scholarships, and awards to the best female high school sophomore and junior poets. Submissions are reviewed by faculty members of Hollins University’s creative writing program and students enrolled in its M.F.A. in creative writing.
The first-place winner receives a $350 cash prize, a renewable $5,000 scholarship to Hollins University if they choose to enroll there, as well as free tuition and housing at the university’s Hollinsummer creative writing program. Their winning work is also published in Cargoes, the university’s student literary magazine.
15. Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
Type: Various
Submission Fee: $10 for individual entry, $30 for portfolio (can use Fee Waiver Form)
Prize: Varies
Deadline: Opens in September
Eligibility: Teens in grades 7–12 (ages 13 and up)
Guidelines: Varies by category
The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards is the nation’s longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens. They offer 28 submission categories, including writing, critical essay, dramatic scripts, flash fiction, journalism, humor, novel writing, personal essay and memoir, poetry, science fiction and fantasy, and short story.
Works are judged by famous jurors who look for works that show originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. Students can earn a variety of scholarships through success in these competitions.
Works that celebrate individual differences or personal grief, loss, and bereavement are eligible for $1,000 scholarships. High school seniors submitting winning portfolios of six works are eligible for up to $12,500 in scholarships.
16. Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Contest
Type: Creative Writing and Poetry
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $100-$1,500
Deadline: June 13, 2023
Eligibility:
- Students ages 11-18 from around the world
- Students can participate as an individual or as a club, class, or group of any size
- All students must provide the contact information for an Adult Sponsor (teacher, parent, mentor, etc.)
Guidelines:
- Creative Writing: no more than 5 pages (approximately 1,250 words)
- Poetry: no more than 2 pages
- A written reflection is required to accompany your submission, regardless of category. It is like the introduction to a book or an artist’s statement in a museum.
The 12th annual 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. Students can participate in six different categories, including poetry and spoken word, and creative writing.
This year’s prompt centers around climate issues:
- Research and choose an inspirational scientist, activist, artist, educator, or other hero who is working to solve climate change issues. Create a piece of art, writing, or media that highlights their efforts, organizations, and/or positive impacts. We are familiar with the amazing work of environmental giants like Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough. We challenge you to introduce the Bow Seat community to a Climate Hero whose work we may not know about yet – but should.
17. John Locke Global Essay Competition
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A (unless late entry)
Prize: $2,000-$10,000 toward attending any John Locke Institute program
Deadline: June 30, 2023 (must register by May 31, 2023)
Eligibility: Candidates must be no older than 18 years old on June 30, 2023 (Candidates for the Junior Prize must be no older than 14 on the same date)
Guidelines: Each essay must address only one of the questions in your chosen subject category, and must not exceed 2,000 words (not counting diagrams, tables of data, footnotes, bibliography, or authorship declaration)
Students competing in this competition have the opportunity to write an essay in one of seven categories—philosophy, politics, economics, history, psychology, theology, and law. Each category has three prompts, from which students choose and respond to one.
Essays are judged on knowledge and understanding of the relevant material, the competent use of evidence, quality of argumentation, originality, structure, writing style, and persuasive force.
If you miss the deadline, you can submit a late entry up until July 10. Late entries will be charged a $20 late fee.
18. AFSA National High School Essay Contest
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $2,500
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility:
- Students whose parents are not in the Foreign Service are eligible to participate.
- Students must be in grades 9-12 in any of the 50 states, Washington, D.C, the U.S. territories, or—if they are U.S. citizens/lawful permanent residents—attending high school overseas.
Guidelines: Your essay should be at least 1,000 words but should not exceed 1,500 words (word count does not apply to the list of sources)
The AFSA Essay Contest focuses on knowledge of foreign policy and the American Foreign Service. Last year’s prompt was:
- In your essay, you will select a country or region in which the United States Foreign Service has been involved at any point since 1924 and describe, in 1,500 words or less, how the Foreign Service was successful or unsuccessful in advancing American foreign policy goals – including promoting peace – in this country/region and propose ways in which it might continue to improve those goals in the coming years.
The first-place winner receives $2,500, a paid trip to the nation’s capital with their parents from anywhere in the U.S., and an all-expenses-paid educational voyage courtesy of Semester at Sea. The runner-up wins $1,250 and full tuition to attend a summer session of the National Student Leadership Conference’s International Diplomacy program.
19. EngineerGirl Writing Contest
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $100-$500
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility:
- The contest is open to individual students in the following three competition categories—Elementary School Students (grades 3-5), Middle School Students (grades 6-8), or High School Students (grades 9-12).
- You can also qualify with corresponding homeschool or international grade levels.
Guidelines:
- High school student essays must be no more than 750 words
- You must also include a reference list of 3-10 resources
In this competition, students choose one of four prompts related to the 20 Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century and explore the technologies that have been developed in the last century and technologies that are being developed today. Students are judged based on their presentation and examples of engineering (~35%), their celebration of diversity (~50%), and their quality of writing (~15%).
20. The Blank Theatre Young Playwright’s Festival
Type: Plays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: Play is produced
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: Playwrights must be 19 years old or younger as of March 15, 2023; co-authored plays are welcome, provided all authors are 19 or younger
Guidelines:
- Original plays or musicals of any length or genre and on any subject
- Up to three plays per playwright or team
While winners of this theater competition do not receive a cash prize, they have the unique opportunity to be mentored by leaders in the field, then will have their play directed and performed by professional artists during the following summer. The 12 best submissions are produced and professionally performed.
21. Saint Mary’s College of California River of Words Contest
Type: Poetry and Arts
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: N/A
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility:
- The contest is open to K-12 students, ages 5-19
- Students must be enrolled in school to be eligible
Guidelines:
- Participants may submit up to 5 entries for poetry and 5 entries for art (total of up to 10 entries)
- Poems should not exceed 32 lines in length (written) or 3 minutes (signed)
- Collaborative poems and artwork are accepted, but only one student (chosen as the group representative) will be eligible for any prizes awarded
The River of Words contest aims to promote environmental literacy through the exchange of arts and culture. River of Words has been inspiring educators and students through this competition for over 25 years.
The goal of River of Words is to connect youth with their watersheds—the environments they live in—through engagement with art and poetry related to the idea of “place.” They look for art and poetry that shows the connection between students and the worlds around them.
22. Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged Essay Contest
Type: Essays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: $10,000
Deadline: November 6, 2023
Eligibility: Open to all 12th grade, college, and graduate students worldwide
Guidelines: Essays must be between 800 and 1,600 words in length
In this essay competition, high school seniors pick one of three prompts about a topic related to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and write an essay that goes through three stages of grading. Students are graded on their clarity, organization, understanding, and ability to stay “on topic.”
23. Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival
Type: Plays
Submission Fee: N/A
Prize: Play produced
Deadline: Passed, but the contest will reopen in 2024
Eligibility: Playwrights ages 6 to 18
Guidelines:
- 8 minutes maximum
- Any genre or style
- Plays should have no more than three characters
- There can be no narrator of the play who is not emotionally invested in the story
- Students must incorporate at least one of the following props or costumes—blue plates, a yellow blouse, a Valentine’s heart with the word “Love,” a flower crown, a plush hotdog, a Mardi Gras bead with jester heads, a pack of clothespins, Russian nesting dolls, a set of miniature cymbals, a lavender blouse, a lei, or a roll of aluminum foil
Since 2010, Writopia Lab has been producing, designing, and directing one-act plays submitted by young playwrights. These winning plays are then performed by New York City theater professionals. The contest looks for playwrights who embody fearlessness and imagination. Writopia Lab says, “Write deeply! Write fiercely! Write politically and personally! And don’t be afraid to write with a sense of play – they are called plays, after all.”
How Do Writing Competitions Affect My Admissions Chances?
While we can’t know exactly how activities outside of the classroom will affect your college admissions odds, the 4 Tiers of Extracurricular Activities provide a helpful framework for understanding how colleges view your extracurriculars.
Extracurricular activities in Tiers 1 and 2 are reserved for the most exclusive and acclaimed awards, and can significantly improve your odds of college admission. By contrast, Tiers 3 and 4 are reserved for more common extracurriculars, and have less of an impact on your chances of college admission.
For example, if you place in a nationally renowned writing competition—a Tier 2 activity—this will positively affect your admissions chances. On the other hand, if you receive an honorable mention in your high school’s poetry contest—a Tier 4 activity—your admissions chances will not be significantly affected.
That said, if you are applying to an English Literature or Creative Writing program with a well-developed essay and recommendations that emphasize your commitment to language, participation in Tier 3 and 4 writing competitions could help admissions officers conceptualize your passion for your future career.
Curious how the writing competition you participated in will affect your college admission chances? CollegeVine can help! Our free chancing calculator uses a variety of factors—including grades, test scores, and extracurriculars—to estimate your odds of getting into hundreds of colleges and universities, while also providing insight into how to improve your profile.
