Creative Opportunities

The Scholastic Art and Writing Competition by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers

Scholastic Art and Writing Scholarships
Students who submit entries to the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition may be eligible for these additional scholarships.

The Barbaric YAWP 
The Barbaric YAWP is CHS’s published anthology of student writing.  The last edition, Unraveled, came to fruition despite the pandemic and is available on Amazon.  A PDF version is available here.  There will be two submission windows this year.  The first shares a December 4 deadline with Scholastic writing submissions. 

Poetry Out Loud 
View this website for details on the Poetry Out Loud competition.

MLK Project and Showcase
Open to submissions from students in grades K-12, this creative project is sponsored each year by the Carlisle MLK Commemoration Committee. 

National Sojourners Essay Contest

Voice of Democracy Patriotic Audio Essay Competition
Grades: 9-12

Patriot's Pen Patriotic Essay Competition
Grades: 6-8

Daughters of the American Revolution Essay Contest
Grades: 9-12

American Legion Auxiliary Americanism Essay Contest

The Adroit Journal

The Incandescent Review


National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Achievement Awards in Writing
Grades: 10 and 11

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Promising Young Writers Awards
Grade 8

Bennington College's Young Writers Awards
Each year, students in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades are invited to enter in one of the following categories with the following submission: poetry (group of three poems), fiction (a short story or one-act play of 1,500 words or fewer), or nonfiction (a personal or academic essay of 1,500 words or fewer). First-place winners in each category are awarded a prize of $500; second-place winners receive $250; third-place winners receive $125. The competition runs annually from September 1 to November 1. Winning entries are posted by April 15.

The Kenyon Review's The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers
Entries usually due in November.

The Kenyon Review's  The Young Writer' Workshop

National Novel Writing Month

JFK Library's Profile in Courage Essay Contest
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation invites U.S. high school students to describe and analyze an act of political courage by a U.S. elected official who served during or after 1917, the year John F. Kennedy was born. The first-place winner receives $10,000. Second-place receives $3,000. Five finalists receive $1,000 each. Eight semifinalists receive $100 each. Ten students receive honorable mention.

Susquehanna University's Summer Advanced Writers Workshops
If you’re a talented writer entering 11th or 12th, join us for our Summer Writers Workshop. Writers will be immersed in intensive, small-group workshops in fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting and poetry led by nationally recognized authors.

Susquehanna University's "The Apprentice Writer"
From the website: The Apprentice Writer publishes poems, stories and personal essays by high school students from a 20-state area. It has a circulation of 11,000 and is distributed each September. In its 33rd year, it is edited and produced, in part, by Susquehanna writing students.

Susquehanna University's Creative Writing Day
For high school seniors and juniors - a day of workshops, readings and information sessions hosted by the Susquehanna Writers Institute.

Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth List of Art and Writing Competitions

YoungArts' National Art Competition (Writing)

YoungArts’ signature program is an application-based award for emerging artists ages 15–18 or in grades 10–12 from across the United States. Selected through a blind adjudication process conducted by an independent panel of highly accomplished artists, YoungArts winners receive valuable support, including financial awards of up to $10,000, professional development and educational experiences working with renowned mentors, and performance and exhibition opportunities at some of the nation’s leading cultural institutions.

Writing encompasses creative nonfiction, novel, play or script, poetry, short story and spoken word. The strongest submissions demonstrate a sense of inventiveness, show attention to the complexities and technical aspects of language, and have a clear, original, and distinct point of view.

33 Writing Contests for Teens 
Author John Matthew Fox has compiled a list of writing contests for teens. Check it out!

Davidson Institute Fellows Scholarship
The Davidson Fellows Scholarship awards $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships to extraordinary young people, 18 and under, who have completed a significant piece of work. Application categories are Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Literature, Music, Philosophy and Outside the Box. Davidson Fellows are honored every year in Washington, D.C. with Congressional meetings and a special reception. Davidson Fellows named as one of "The 10 Biggest Scholarships in the World" by TheBestColleges.org and one of "7 Prestigious Undergrad Scholarships" in U.S. News & World Report.

Sejong Writing Competition
Sponsored by the Sejong Cultural Society. Mission Statement from their website: The goals of the Sejong Writing Competition are to discover children and young adults talented in writing and to encourage them to learn and write about Korean and its culture. Through this writing competition we hope to increase the awareness and understanding of Korea’s cultural heritage amongst the younger generations growing up in the United States. Entries due by February 28, 2015.

Denison University's Jonathan R. Reynolds Young Writers Workshop
Interested students must apply for this 8-day writers' conference, which meets on Denison's campus in Grantville, Ohio. The program runs from June 14-21.

Young Playwrights Festival
Are you between the ages of 12 - 18 and in middle school or high school?  Have you ever written a play or had an idea for one?  Would you like to see a play of yours workshopped by professionals and presented at the world-renowned Eugene O'Neill Theater Center? The Young Playwrights Festival takes place each spring at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. If your play is selected for the Festival, you will work with a creative team composed of National Theater Institute alumni - a director, dramaturg, designer, and actors to develop and stage your script.

The Concord Review
The Concord Review, Inc., was founded in March 1987 to recognize and to publish exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world. With the Spring Issue (#104), 1,143 research papers (average 6,000 words, with endnotes and bibliography) have been published from authors in forty-four states and forty other countries. The Concord Review remains the only quarterly journal in the world to publish the academic history papers of secondary students. Click on the "Submit" tab at the top to learn how to submit your work.

Pennsylvania Society for Biomedical Research - Essay Contest
Celebrate the "A" in "STEAM" with this essay contest that asks students to write about "Biomedical Research and My Life."

Bow Seat's Ocean Awareness Contest
From the website: 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 ages 11-18 from around the world are invited to participate.

Rachel Carson Intergenerational Sense of Wonder/Sense of the Wild Contest