Writers from all over campus, regardless of your major, the Narrative High School Writing Contest invites you to submit to their new prompt: My Note to the World. Submissions are now open up until February 1st, 2024, for grades 9-12. Pieces may be a letter (essay), a story of no more than 600 words, or a poem of 10-15 lines that “depicts this theme or problem and proposes some kind of solution.”
Students from all over the world are eligible to present their piece, as long as it’s their own original and unpublished work, both online and printed. The work presented must solely be from scratch and may not be considered if it goes against these rules. For great influence and motivation, be sure to read their guest judge for this year, Rick Bass’s “Letter to a Young Writer,” before you start writing. He includes a heartfelt message, describing his time as an author and environmental activist.
The exact deadline for the contest will be Thursday, February 1st, 2024, at 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Writers will submit their work to their English teachers, or in our case, Mr. Capley or Ms. Kastner, and may upload their submissions through the high school submission portal. Though, each teacher may only submit 10 students at a time, one piece for each student. On the upside, 30 students from each school are allowed to submit, free of any price.
To provide fairness for each and every student, all judging of submitted works will be stripped of names, grades, and school association, and will be randomly sorted by Narrative’s team, run by bestselling author Carol Edgarian and their guest judge, Rick Bass. The first, second, and third place winners along with various finalists will be announced mid-April where Bass and Edgarian will meet and mentor the winners before their publication.
There are cash prizes for the winners of the contest. 1st place receives 500 dollars, second place receives 200, third receives 100, and finalists each receive 50. The winning pieces will be published in Narrative, alongside many other writers who have made a difference with their works.
“Be artful, be original. Be bold!” says those at Narrative. It’s up to you to commit and move forward, so why not give it a shot?
