4 WRITING COMPETITIONS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Calling all high school student writers! If you’re looking for scholarships or ways to support your future education, look no further than writing competitions.

Below are 4 writing competitions for high school students. Check them now!

Scholastic Writing Awards

The Scholastic Writing Awards celebrate was created by students aged 13 and older in grades 7 through 12 across the country. You can submit(提交) all kinds of writing works, including science fiction, humor, short plays, and more.

Gold medal winners can earn a $10,000 scholarship, and silver medal winners can earn a$1,000 scholarship. The fee to apply is $7 for a single entry.

Young Lions Fiction Award

To apply for this award, any writer aged 35 or younger may submit a novel or collection of short stories. Each year, a group of experts including Young Lions members, writers, and librarians select the winner.

The winner of this award will receive a $11.000 scholarship.

NSHSS Creative Writing Scholarship

High school students of all ages can have access to this creative writing scholarship. Students can submit works (that have not been published before)in one or both categories (类别): poetry and fiction.

A prize of $2,000 ill be awarded to one student winner in each category.

We the Students Essay Competitions

This competition asks students to answer the question, “What are the important qualities of a citizen in your community in 21st century America?” in an essay between 500 and 800 words. Students must be US citizens between the ages of 14 and 19 to apply.

One national winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize and six runners-up will receive $1,250 each.

Born in Ryazan, Russia, the hometown of Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, Anastasia Podareva seems to be destined for a similar career.

Podareva, 28, has loved poetry since she was a girl, when her father would introduce her to works by great Russian poets such as Alexander Pushkin and, of course, Yesenin. Growing up, she wrote many poems in both Russian and English. After she came to China to study in 2013, the world of Chinese poetry opened up before her.

She soon gave herself a poetic Chinese name, Tang Xilan, with “tang” referring to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when Chinese poetry entered a golden age, and both “xi” and “lan” are characters taken from The Book of Songs, the earliest collection of Chinese poetry. Her name means an orchid (兰花) that blooms in the morning.

“One thing that strikes me in reading and writing Chinese poetry is the power of the language-it’s melodious (悦耳的) and rhythmic,” says Podareva in My China Surprise, a video series produced by 21^st Century.

Over the past decade, Podareva has won awards in multiple poetry writing competitions, published her own Chinese poetry collections, and participated in Chinese Poetry Conference, one of the leading poetry-themed TV programs in China. On top of that, her most unforgettable memory is that one of her poems was turned into a song. And even better: She sang it herself. The poem, titled If, was written in early of 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After witnessing China’s unity as it faced the pandemic, Podareva felt as one with the Chinese people. “I wanted to create something positive to help inspire and encourage people in times of difficulty,” she says. “Some people may praise China in a very straightforward way, but I prefer to express my feelings about the country through different styles of poems.”

Narrative (叙事) poems — which simply mean “story poems”— are among the oldest forms of literature. Before there were printed books, people would tell stories through narrative poems, using rhythm, repetition and vivid language to make their tales easy to remember and share.     16     But modern narrative poems often have very free rhythms or no rhyme at all! However, almost all narrative poems tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end. Once you’re ready to write your own narrative poem, keep these tips in mind.

Choose a topic. Pick a story that you really want to tell.     17    Remember, the narrator of the poem doesn’t have to be you. It can be a character of your choice.

Skip the build­up. Narrative poems don’t waste words introducing characters or explaining the scene — most dive right in. Try starting your narrative poem in the middle of the action scene.     18    

Sweat the small stuff (小事). The best narrative poems use exact, descriptive words that bring out a story’s details and paint a rich picture.     19     You can use adjectives that help describe what the world looks, sounds, smells, tastes, and feels like, so readers will experience it just like you do.

    20     This is an especially good strategy if your narrative poem is long. Try repeating key words or phrases that are emotional or musical a few times. Remember Martin Luther King’s famous speech? He says “I have a dream” eight times during that speech, which is part of what makes it so powerful.

Poetry    36     (communicate) in words. To do that    37     (successful), it must have something important to say, expressing it in a unique way. Whether you are writing poetry yourself or analysing (分析) poems     38     (write) by someone else, you should be thinking about these two broad categories: what is being said, and how it is being expressed.

What is being said may be something unforgettable or something funny, something deeply emotional or something that has just made the writer stop and think. Whatever it is, the theme of the poem will be something worth     39     (say). If you are writing a poem yourself and are not very    40     (experience), it’s best to choose a topic you feel deeply about. Writing a poem     41     begins with ‘I remember’ is a good way to focus your attention       42     something really memorable.

However, two poems could easily have     43     same theme and yet be completely different. What makes     44     (they) different? How they are expressed is the key. It is the way the poet writes that you need to analyse if you are writing about a poem, and if you are writing one yourself, you must choose the form and the words which suit what you want     45     (express).

Mrs. Palin spoke as she walked to the front of the classroom, “Next Wednesday, I’ll give you a test to check your ability as a conductor. Now, select one of the composers listed on the chalkboard. And after class, find a tape containing the composition created by the composer. During the test, use the tape player to play the composition. When the music starts, imagine you are the conductor of an orchestra that performs the composer’s music.” And then she smiled, “You’ll receive the test in front of your classmates.”

“What? A test in front of the classmates? It will kill me,” I said to myself. Although normally I performed well in music, and often have high marks, I am quite a shy girl. After a short while, I took a deep breath and scanned the list of names on the chalkboard. One name caught my attention.

“Who’s that person?” I wondered. I didn’t know, but that was going to be my choice.

Seated in the classroom, I fixed my eyes on that name anxiously, hoping no one would announce that name. Finally, it was my turn. I said without a second thought, “Johannes Brahms.” once I said the name, panic washed over me. I sighed, “How am I going to do this? I know nothing about the person and his composition. But I have to perform in front of my classmates and teacher.”

Later in the day, I went to a store and bought a tape that contained Johannes Brahms’s compositions and its relevant music notation (乐谱). Back home, played the tape, and tried to get familiar with the composition. When listening to the composition and looking at the music score, I held a stick and moved my arms to and fro (来回地), pretending to be guiding an orchestra. During the following days, I kept practicing but didn’t perform quite well. The composition was indeed hard to me.

When the big day came, I felt nervous as I slipped into my seat and waited for my turn to perform. Eventually, Mrs. Palin called my name, “Jill, it’s your turn.”

Then, I forced myself to walk to the front of the classroom.

The next day, Mrs. Palin handed each student a piece of paper with a score.