Tenth Annual Narrative High School Writing Contest

The Tenth Annual Narrative High School Writing Contest will open for submissions on January 6, 2025, and will close for submissions on February 5, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. The contest results, including winners and finalists, will be announced in mid-April.

Students from the US and internationally, grades 9–12, are eligible to submit to the contest. Winners and finalists, along with their teacher representatives, will be asked to provide identification.

What is this year’s prompt? Here’s a note from our judge, Narrative cofounder/editor and bestselling author, Carol Edgarian:

I don’t have to tell you that life is full of moments when too many things go unsaid. That’s rich turf for a writer. Trying to tease some sense out of secrets or questions is where many of the best stories and poems begin.

Using the prompt “What I Cannot Say, I’ll Say Here” as a springboard, we invite you to go to the places that are vulnerable, messy, authentic. To write about what confuses or shocks or angers you, to speak truth to power, to ask who you are and what you’re capable of, to talk of things you might not think you have the agency to change or fix. Are there stories or events you’ve been reluctant to address in order to protect others? Do you see something amiss in the greater world—something maybe a bit new or raw or unguarded that needs saying? Weave it into a poem, a story, an essay that speaks volumes. Create the space, conjure the world, use your authentic voice to shine a lamp into the darkness.

You might start where you’re feeling stuck or worried, where your heart quickens from fear of what’s behind that door. Hold still in that heart-stomping place, and see what comes, working forward, word by word.

Be artful, be original. Be bold! Pick a subject or issue that confounds the world at large or troubles your life specifically—it can be something outside your window, your country, or closest of all, something in your heart. Write a story or essay of no more than 600 words, or a poem of 10 to 50 lines, that exposes this theme or problem and proposes some kind of solution. It’s in moments like these when writers speak truth to the world. Be that writer!

You may turn toward the metaphorical or the literal, the small or the large, the individual or the systemic. Lean into the questions, and ask others to join you. We each have something to learn and something to teach. We challenge you not to dwell too much on what is wrong but instead to turn challenges into what you want and what you love. Take us on a journey that is distinctly your own and shows us what we’re missing.

We cannot wait to read what only you can write!

    —Carol Edgarian

Writers will submit work through their teacher, who will upload the work through the High School Contest submission portal. Each teacher may submit the work of no more than ten students—with one poem, story, or essay per student, and each student’s submission made separately by their teacher. Schools may submit a maximum of thirty submissions in total. The contest is free to enter. If you haven’t already done so, take a minute to create a Narrative account for free access to all the stories, poems, and essays we publish.

Story and essay submissions should be in 12-point type, double-spaced, and no longer than 600 words. Poem submissions should be in 12-point type, single-spaced, and 10 to 50 lines long, excluding line breaks. All submissions must be in English.

Pick a situation or story that truly resonates with you. If it has heat for you, it’s much more likely to have heat for your reader. We encourage you to focus on using vivid images. Choose your words wisely. If it can be said in three words, don’t use six. Read your work aloud to test it for its clarity, urgency, and musicality. Tell us a story, paint us a picture, bring us into your world.

We want to encourage you to take the time to express yourself through the written word, and we very much want to meet you on the page.

For fairness, all judging of submitted work will be done with names, grades, and school affiliations removed and, further, entries will be sorted randomly by Narrative’s team—led by Narrative cofounder/editor and New York Times–bestselling author Carol Edgarian. A first-, second-, and third-place winner, along with several finalists, will be announced in mid-April. Carol Edgarian will meet and mentor winners over Zoom prior to publication in the magazine. Cash prizes totaling more than $2,000 will be awarded.

The winning author will be presented with a $500 award. The second-place winner will receive $250, and the third-place winner will receive $100. Each finalist will receive $50. The schools of winners will also receive special recognition and prizes. The winning works will be published in Narrative, alongside many of today’s great writers.

Yes! We believe that great writing comes through vigorous revision. Of course, the final product should represent your original work and voice. We do not tolerate plagiarism of any kind or work generated using AI. Let your heart and head be the creator of something wonderful that could only be written by you.

Of course, within reason. We encourage teachers to review their students’ drafts and to create space for peer editing, just as long as the students’ work remains their own. You might direct your students to Narrative’s student resources, which include writing tips to help your students set pens to paper, our Writers & Mentors Videos, and two lists of exemplary written works: a Theme-Based Reading Guide and a Recommended Reading List. We also urge both you and your students to familiarize yourselves with the array of works already published in Narrative’s virtual stacks to gain an understanding of the quality of the writing we publish.

Check out our Letter to a Young Writer by this year’s judge, Carol Edgarian, as well as recent winning works.

The Ninth Annual High School Contest: My Note to the World

The Eighth Annual High School Contest: True or False?

The Seventh Annual High School Contest: Blind Spots

The Sixth Annual High School Contest: Escape

The Fifth Annual High School Contest: The Choice

The Fourth Annual High School Contest: The Mistake

The Third Annual High School Contest: When Everything Changed

The Second Annual High School Contest: Dear America

The First Annual High School Contest: Where I’m Going

If there’s something we haven’t covered, feel free to reach out to us at @email. We love to hear from students and teachers!

Click here to download the Contest Poster
for printing and displaying in your school.