Caroline’s Colossal Collection of Writing Competitions

The world of writing competitions for youth is vast and sometimes overwhelming; sifting through a seemingly endless supply of short story, poetry, nonfiction, journalistic, and every-other-possible-genre writing contests to find the right fit for you can feel an indomitable task at times. However, writing competitions and the accompanying search are absolutely worth your time. If you’re a person who loves words, writing competitions can be a incredible pathway to new creative inspiration and networking opportunities. Your existing work can be recognized, or you can create something new that you didn’t even realize you were capable of producing in response to a writing competition’s prompt. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you might find an essay contest that’s perfectly in your niche, whether that’s World War II or international relations or engineering. Besides the intellectual stimulation of the writing process, being recognized is incredibly gratifying. Many provide some kind of scholarship or monetary compensation, and winning writing awards always looks awesome on college or scholarship apps.

I’ll be the first to admit, though, finding the competition deadline, info, submission genres, and more can be exhausting. I’d like to start a series of reviews where I round up the writing competition resources that have been most helpful to me, as a teen writer who’s been recognized by Scholastic Art & Writing, the Torrance Creativity Awards, and the Goi Peace Foundation. I’ll start simple, with the big lists of well-regarded, legitimate writing competitions compiled by others that provide lots of key info quickly so you can find exactly what you’re looking for. Starting broadly is best so you don’t cut yourself off from potentially great opportunities just because they’re outside your more narrow niche. Take a chance and try entering one of the competitions on these lists — after all, most of you have plentiful free time now!

Student-focused Contest Compilations

We Are Teachers – 20 Student Writing Contest – provides brief description of contest, how to enter, awards for winners, and deadlines (though specific days change year to year)

New Pages Young Writers Guide to Contests – describes age/grade eligibility, genre of contest, and deadlines

Prepscholar – Writing Contests For High School Students – describes award amount, entry fee, deadline, and organization/contest overview  

Quora – How can I develop a spike in English…? – threads like this one on Quora and College Confidential can be treasure troves of resources

Not necessarily marketed to teens, but many submissions open to all 
Freedom with Writing – regularly updated website posting latest paid writing opportunities (publications, competitions, & more)

The Writer Magazine – latest contests constantly posted on website and newsletters

The Write Life – Writing Contest – list of 32 writing competitions with cash prizes

**Note: I compiled and have been meaning to publish these long before George Floyd’s horrific death occurred. We are seeing the product of months, years, centuries of injustice — in who holds power in society, in how society protect those meant to protect us, in who suffers the most from global pandemics and government policies and environmental deregulation. Black lives matter, and they always have. I intend to expand on the BLM movement, racial injustice, and resources for educating yourself on those topics in a later post, but for now, I did want to share something a little lighter, something that could help someone in some small way. Please, stay safe and remember that you are not alone.