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Award Winners

Young Writers Awards
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Young Writers Awards Winners

For 10 years, the Young Writers Awards has awarded cash and scholarships to the most promising high school writers worldwide. Submissions of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have grown to nearly 7,000 per year. We congratulate all entrants on their extraordinary submissions and are pleased to share past winning entries below.

Recent Winners

In 2024鈥2025, 51成人猎奇 awarded nine young writers from across the country and around the world. 

Poetry
  1. First Place, 鈥A Great Egret Stands in a Puddle Off the Highway / I Pretend, a Crab Shell, No End / Brother of the Sixth Swan, Working in a Sushi Restaurant,鈥 Allison Kim, Greenville, SC, The Fine Arts Center
  2. Second Place, 鈥Save Face / Salvation / Chicken Little,鈥 Derek Jiu, Houston, TX, Saint John鈥檚 School
  3. Third Place, 鈥Dog Years / Mid-Autumn Sonata / Breaking News: Ghost of Michelle Go Haunts the Afterimages,鈥 Evan Wang, King of Prussia, PA, Upper Merion Area High School
Fiction
  1. First Place, "Lepidopterists Dreaming in Chinese," Hoseok (Kevin) Jeon, Seoul, South Korea, Korea International School
  2. Second Place, "All Set, Thank You," Raya Nepal Gupta, Madaba, Jordan, Kings Academy
  3. Third Place, "Axiology," Robert Gao, Urbana, IL, University Laboratory High School
Nonfiction
  1. First Place, 鈥Wither on the Vine,鈥 Michelle Li, Austin, TX, Westwood High School
  2. Second Place, 鈥L鈥橦么pital鈥檚 Rule; or, Oblivions,鈥 Fiona Jin, Lincolnshire, IL, Adlai E. Stevenson High School
  3. Third Place, 鈥Hot New Paint Colors for this Season,鈥 Miah Knight, San Mateo, CA, Nueva School

Past Winners

The Young Writers Awards has accepted tens of thousands of submissions and awarded nearly seventy writers in the last 10 years. 

2023鈥2024 Winners

The 2023鈥2024 winners included students from across the United States. 

Fiction
  1. First Place, 鈥1000,鈥 Kekoa Dowsett, Portland, OR, Jesuit High School
  2. Second Place, 鈥Guide to Being a Girl When You鈥檙e Not One, Actually,鈥 Faith Reasoner-Fellows, Castaic, CA, Castaic High School
  3. Third Place, 鈥Holiness in a Downtown Apartment; A Bible Lesson,鈥 Moriah Hogans, Dothan, AL, Dothan High School 
Nonfiction
  1. First Place, 鈥Death of the Pointe Shoe,鈥 Addison (Addi) Moss, Pacific Palisades, CA, Stanford Online High School
  2. Second Place, 鈥17 Hail Marys,鈥 Venya Sharda, Fremont, CA, Washington High School
  3. Third Place, 鈥,鈥 Roark Petermann, Walden, NY, Valley Central High School 
Poetry
  1. First Place, 鈥for your own good / All Men are Bad / sugar pill," Sophie Bernik, Traverse City, MI, Interlochen Arts Academy
  2. Second Place, 鈥They grind up racehorses / all her things have gone far away / Bedtime Stories for Little Curses,鈥 Seoyon Kim, East Greenwich, RI, Wheeler School
  3. Third Place, 鈥Exam God Hands You While Dawdling Before the Pearly Gates / False Elegy / Homecoming,鈥 Ava Chen, Wellesley, MA, Phillips Academy

2022鈥2023 Winners

The 2022鈥2023 winners included students from the United States, Mongolia, India, and Pakistan. 

Poetry
  1. First Place, "Manhattanhenge / Scrapyard Blues / What moves the needle," Katie Hwang, Dalton School, New York, NY
  2. Second Place, "Ghazal for Matrilineal Multiverse / Appetence of Vietnamese Daughter / Moonlight on the Ganges," Sunny Vuong, BASIS San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
  3. Third Place, "parking lot supplications / Cassandra / (clementine) peel," Anaya Marei, homeschooled, Stockton, CA
Fiction
  1. First Place, "A Story Woven From a Bucket of Milk," Enkhjin Gantumur, School 1 of Ulaanbaatar, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  2. Second Place, 鈥Untitled,鈥 Caroline Anthony, The High School of the Performing and Visual Arts, Houston, TX
  3. Third Place, "鈥楬ow have you been?鈥 鈥楿nlike you,鈥" Shambhavi Sinha, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Collegiate Public School, Chandigarh, India
Nonfiction
  1. First Place, "Diagnosis of Familial, Lateral Curvatures," Joanna Liu, Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
  2. Second Place, "Cat in a Box," Kat Davis, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville, SC
  3. Third Place, "Riddled Realities," Emaan Abbasi, Lahore Grammar School, Lahore, Pakistan 

2021鈥2022 Winners

Winners represented Hong Kong, Poland, and the United States, including California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and South Carolina.

Poetry
  1. First Place, "How Did Li Bai Die? / How to Turn Into the River / Suns," Ran Zhao, King George V School, Kowloon, Hong Kong
  2. Second Place, "Broken Abecedarian for America / Ghazal for K / Fish-bodied," Jessica Kim, La Canada High School, La Canada, CA
  3. Third Place, "In Which My Mother Asks When the Hell I鈥檓 Getting Baptized / Etymology of Paternity / Bible Study Ghazal," Ashley Wang, Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville NJ
Fiction
  1. First Place, "Observations made at the Lu Family Dinner Table, New Year's Eve, 2019," Sunshine Chen, Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, MA
  2. Second Place, "A Language is a Story," Olga Musial, 33 Copernicus High School, Warszawa, Poland
  3. Third Place,  "" was written by Rachel Kenley Fry and attributed to another writer, who submitted the work. This never should have happened as the contest requires students to submit original work. We apologize to the writer for this wrongful attribution. Measures have been taken to guard against plagiarism in the future.
Nonfiction
  1. First Place,  "罢丑别鈥擫辞惫别濒测鈥搁别诲鈥掷办颈谤迟," Youjaye Daniels, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenvile, SC
  2. Second Place, "Somewhere in Southern Florida," Vivian Zhu, Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IL
  3. Third Place, "Family Portrait as a Gutted Fish," Danny Liu, Lake Highland Prep School, Orlando, FL

2020鈥2021 Winners

Winners in 2020鈥2021 stretched across the country from Middlebury, Vermont, to San Francisco, California.

Poetry
  1. First Place, "When You Wish Upon a Star / [letter to durga] / Sightseeing," Aanika Eragam, Milton High School, Alpharetta, GA
  2. Second Place, "a sudden nostalgia that i am meant to be somewhere else / The Bedroom / Etymology of Loss," Olivia Yang, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
  3. Third Place, "Girl Sonnet / Honey Ghazal / Shelter, Water, A Bite to Eat," Madelyn Dietz, Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI
Fiction
  1. First Place, "Somewhere Nearby Connecticut, There's a Clan of Vampires and a Woman He May Never Know," Alyssa Wilson, South Carolina Governor鈥檚 School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville, SC
  2. Second Place, "Dinner of Three," Wes Davis, Henry Clay High School, Lexington, KY
  3. Third Place, "Birthday Party," Katarina Ivkovic, Hunter College High School, New York, NY
Nonfiction
  1. First Place,  "Dissecting Matryoshka," Stefania Bielkina, The Dwight School, New York, NY
  2. Second Place, "Skin Test," Indigo Mudbhary, Lick Wilmerding High School, San Francisco, CA
  3. Third Place, "Gifted," Rebecca Orten, Middlebury Union High School, Middlebury, VT

Ready to Enter?

Submit your entry for a chance to win up to $1,000 cash and a $60,000 scholarship to 51成人猎奇, a hub of literary activity and influence.

Contest Requirements Literature at Bennington