Participation is free and open to all high school students worldwide. There is no cost associated with registering.
Registration is open now and closes on April 30, 11:59 PM EDT. You must register by this time to participate.
We will ask you to provide a username, a password, your full name, your email address, your graduation year, the name of your school, and your country.
During the contest
The contest will be open on this website from May 2, 12:00 AM to May 3, 11:59 PM EDT.
You can start at any time of your choosing within the contest window.
Once you start, you’ll be given two hours to submit either a poem or a short story in response to a specific prompt —to which you will not have access beforehand.
You will only be allowed to submit in one genre.
If you finish before the two hours, feel free to submit early. Remember to press the “Submit” button, because otherwise we won’t be able to access your work!
Judging
Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of renowned authors and professors of English and creative writing. They will select a winner, a runner-up, and a third-place winner, and three honorable mentions in each of the two genres (poetry and fiction).
Due to the volume of submissions we received, winners will be announced in July. All contestants will receive an email when this happens.
Prizes and recognition
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, the winners for each genre will receive a $1,000 cash prize, the runners-up will receive $250, and the third-place winners will receive $125.
In addition, they will all receive books from our sponsors.
Three honorable mentions will be named for each genre.