San Francisco Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

March 22nd, 2026

San Francisco Public Library
Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has served for over one hundred years as the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. The Awards are administered nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and locally through partnerships with regional affiliates.

The Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is administered through a partnership with Writopia Lab, and serves communities north of New York City: Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York.

This year, teens from public, private, or home schools throughout America submitted more than 300,000 original works to the Awards’ 29 categories of art and writing. The H2H Writing Region received more than 2,500 writing submissions and awarded a total of 103 Gold Keys, 212 Silver Keys, and 327 Honorable Mentions. All Gold Keys have gone on to further adjudication at the national level. National honors will be announced on the artandwriting.org website on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

Submissions to the Awards are adjudicated blindly—jurors do not know the identity of student artists or authors. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice.

The growing list of accomplished young writers recognized by The Awards has included Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lena Dunham. Outside the arts, Awards alumni employ their creativity to become successful in any number of ways—leaders in fields including journalism, medicine, finance, government and public service, the law, science, design, and more.

About Writopia Lab

Founded in 2007 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, Writopia Lab fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. 

Every day at Writopia Lab, we witness the transformative power of being heard. Because of this experience, we are dedicated to giving teen writers the opportunity to be read—and celebrated—as part of the broader literary community. To help make this possible, we administer the H2H Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Writopia Lab coordinates submissions, organizes the adjudication, and presents the Awards Ceremony for regional recipients.

Writopia Lab is a nationwide community of young writers that runs school-year and summer programs at locations in the metropolitan regions of New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area—as well as online and in-person programming throughout the United States and abroad. For more information about Writopia Lab’s programs, please visit WritopiaLab.org.

American Voices Nominees

Each year five American Voices Nominees are selected from the H2H Writing Region to exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. During the national re-adjudication of all regional Gold Key works, the region’s American Voices medal recipient will be chosen from among these nominees.

• Dylan Lachance of Lick-Wilmerding High School for 4% Won’t Cut It in the Fight for Kids’ Lives (Critical Essay)
• Julia Howe of Lick-Wilmerding High School for Beloved1_Beloved2_Beloved3_Beloved4 (Short Story)
• Jahan Zubair of Novato High School, for I Love My Guts (Screenplays & Scripts)
• Gavin Choi of Lowell High School, for I Took A Psychotic Walk Today (Flash Fiction)
• Harper Lind of Urban School Of San Francisco, for Sweetbitter (Personal Essay & Memoir)

Special Thanks

To our keynote speaker: Thien Pham.

To our esteemed jurors, for providing their valuable time and expertise.

To Writopia Lab’s volunteer staff, interns, and student families.

To the San Francisco Public Library, for hosting the ceremony.

Our Keynote Speaker 

Thien Pham is a graphic novelist, comic artist, and educator based in Oakland, CA. He is the author and illustrator of the graphic novel Sumo and did the art for the middle-grade graphic novel Level Up, written by Gene Luen Yang. His Latest Book Family Style is a memoir about his family’s immigration to America told through the lens of food came out in June. Currently, Pham is working on his next graphic novel, teaching, and eating. A lot.

The Recipients

• Gold Key
  Recipients
• Silver Key
  Recipients
• Honorable Mention
  Recipients

Gold Key Recipients

Silver Key Recipients

Honorable Mention Recipients

San Francisco Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

March 22nd, 2026

San Francisco Public Library
Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has served for over one hundred years as the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. The Awards are administered nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and locally through partnerships with regional affiliates.

The Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is administered through a partnership with Writopia Lab, and serves communities north of New York City: Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York.

This year, teens from public, private, or home schools throughout America submitted more than 300,000 original works to the Awards’ 29 categories of art and writing. The H2H Writing Region received more than 2,500 writing submissions and awarded a total of 103 Gold Keys, 212 Silver Keys, and 327 Honorable Mentions. All Gold Keys have gone on to further adjudication at the national level. National honors will be announced on the artandwriting.org website on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

Submissions to the Awards are adjudicated blindly—jurors do not know the identity of student artists or authors. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice.

The growing list of accomplished young writers recognized by The Awards has included Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lena Dunham. Outside the arts, Awards alumni employ their creativity to become successful in any number of ways—leaders in fields including journalism, medicine, finance, government and public service, the law, science, design, and more.

About Writopia Lab

Founded in 2007 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, Writopia Lab fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. 

Every day at Writopia Lab, we witness the transformative power of being heard. Because of this experience, we are dedicated to giving teen writers the opportunity to be read—and celebrated—as part of the broader literary community. To help make this possible, we administer the H2H Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Writopia Lab coordinates submissions, organizes the adjudication, and presents the Awards Ceremony for regional recipients.

Writopia Lab is a nationwide community of young writers that runs school-year and summer programs at locations in the metropolitan regions of New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area—as well as online and in-person programming throughout the United States and abroad. For more information about Writopia Lab’s programs, please visit WritopiaLab.org.

American Voices Nominees

Each year five American Voices Nominees are selected from the H2H Writing Region to exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. During the national re-adjudication of all regional Gold Key works, the region’s American Voices medal recipient will be chosen from among these nominees.

• Joshua Greenbarg of Irvington High School, for Boca Brag and Schmear (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Suzuran Draper of Greens Farms Academy, for Cape May, A Different Year (Poetry)
• Lindsay Miao of Hotchkiss School, for Lessons from Iraq: Why U.S. Regime Change in Venezuela Would Repeat Past Failures (Critical Essay)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Craters (Poetry)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Unicorn (Personal Essay & Memoir)

The Tricia Baldes Prizes

Tricia Baldes, a beloved 8th-grade teacher at Somers (NY) Middle School, inspired countless young people to tell their stories bravely, honestly, and with a true love of the craft of writing. Given in her memory, these special prizes celebrate middle schoolers who demonstrated exemplary skill and promise in their Scholastic entries, and also (as Tricia always did) seek to encourage all young people to keep writing.

• Miranda Cameron, Greens Farms Academy: "Vergiftigd Paars" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Tiffany Chainam, New Paltz Middle School: "Tongues of Two Worlds" (Poem)
• Benny Harkey, Greens Farms Academy: "Watch Her" (Poem)
• Xi Huang, School name TK: "The Unexpected Trip" (Flash Fiction)
• Hollis Koch, Sacred Heart Greenwich: "My Five Memories" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Henry Marzullo, New Paltz Middle School: "The Goblin and the Witch's Hat" (Speculative Fiction)
• Brielle Moon, Rumsey School: "Scaredy-cat" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Selima Ortiz, Rippowam Cisqua School-Upper: "I'm Still Here" (Poem)
• Camille Reid, New Paltz Middle School: "An Ocean" (Short Story)

Special Thanks

To our keynote speaker: Kaley Mamo.

To our esteemed jurors, for providing their valuable time and expertise.

To Writopia Lab’s volunteer staff, interns, and student families.

To Joe Wallace and The Village Bookstore of Pleasantville, NY, for sponsoring prizes for middle schoolers. Among the few independent neighborhood bookshops remaining in the region, The Village Bookstore features a great selection of books and gifts. Their knowledgeable staff is committed to the local community and welcomes special orders! They are located across from the Jacob Burns Film Center, at 10 Washington Avenue, Pleasantville, New York.

Our Keynote Speaker 

Kaley Mamo is a screenwriter, playwright, and filmmaker who writes stories about complicated women and people who make mistakes. She was one of seven screenwriters chosen for the 2025 Black List Writers Lab for her crime mystery script SHELLS. Her horror script, THE WELL, was a 2024 Academy Nicholl Semifinalist and is currently under option at Talon Entertainment. Her plays have been produced in the Irvington Theater Arts Incubator Short Play Festival, the Queens Short Play Festival, Break a Leg Productions Earth Day Expo, and Coastal Creative’s End of the World Play Festival, in addition to earning her Final Round consideration at Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor Summer Residency. She is represented by Harvest Hill Entertainment.

The Recipients

• Gold Key
  Recipients
• Silver Key
  Recipients
• Honorable Mention
  Recipients

Gold Key Recipients

Silver Key Recipients

Honorable Mention Recipients

San Francisco Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

March 22nd, 2026

San Francisco Public Library
Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has served for over one hundred years as the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. The Awards are administered nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and locally through partnerships with regional affiliates.

The Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is administered through a partnership with Writopia Lab, and serves communities north of New York City: Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York.

This year, teens from public, private, or home schools throughout America submitted more than 300,000 original works to the Awards’ 29 categories of art and writing. The H2H Writing Region received more than 2,500 writing submissions and awarded a total of 103 Gold Keys, 212 Silver Keys, and 327 Honorable Mentions. All Gold Keys have gone on to further adjudication at the national level. National honors will be announced on the artandwriting.org website on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

Submissions to the Awards are adjudicated blindly—jurors do not know the identity of student artists or authors. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice.

The growing list of accomplished young writers recognized by The Awards has included Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lena Dunham. Outside the arts, Awards alumni employ their creativity to become successful in any number of ways—leaders in fields including journalism, medicine, finance, government and public service, the law, science, design, and more.

About Writopia Lab

Founded in 2007 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, Writopia Lab fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. 

Every day at Writopia Lab, we witness the transformative power of being heard. Because of this experience, we are dedicated to giving teen writers the opportunity to be read—and celebrated—as part of the broader literary community. To help make this possible, we administer the H2H Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Writopia Lab coordinates submissions, organizes the adjudication, and presents the Awards Ceremony for regional recipients.

Writopia Lab is a nationwide community of young writers that runs school-year and summer programs at locations in the metropolitan regions of New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area—as well as online and in-person programming throughout the United States and abroad. For more information about Writopia Lab’s programs, please visit WritopiaLab.org.

American Voices Nominees

Each year five American Voices Nominees are selected from the H2H Writing Region to exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. During the national re-adjudication of all regional Gold Key works, the region’s American Voices medal recipient will be chosen from among these nominees.

• Joshua Greenbarg of Irvington High School, for Boca Brag and Schmear (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Suzuran Draper of Greens Farms Academy, for Cape May, A Different Year (Poetry)
• Lindsay Miao of Hotchkiss School, for Lessons from Iraq: Why U.S. Regime Change in Venezuela Would Repeat Past Failures (Critical Essay)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Craters (Poetry)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Unicorn (Personal Essay & Memoir)

The Tricia Baldes Prizes

Tricia Baldes, a beloved 8th-grade teacher at Somers (NY) Middle School, inspired countless young people to tell their stories bravely, honestly, and with a true love of the craft of writing. Given in her memory, these special prizes celebrate middle schoolers who demonstrated exemplary skill and promise in their Scholastic entries, and also (as Tricia always did) seek to encourage all young people to keep writing.

• Miranda Cameron, Greens Farms Academy: "Vergiftigd Paars" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Tiffany Chainam, New Paltz Middle School: "Tongues of Two Worlds" (Poem)
• Benny Harkey, Greens Farms Academy: "Watch Her" (Poem)
• Xi Huang, School name TK: "The Unexpected Trip" (Flash Fiction)
• Hollis Koch, Sacred Heart Greenwich: "My Five Memories" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Henry Marzullo, New Paltz Middle School: "The Goblin and the Witch's Hat" (Speculative Fiction)
• Brielle Moon, Rumsey School: "Scaredy-cat" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Selima Ortiz, Rippowam Cisqua School-Upper: "I'm Still Here" (Poem)
• Camille Reid, New Paltz Middle School: "An Ocean" (Short Story)

Special Thanks

To our keynote speaker: Kaley Mamo.

To our esteemed jurors, for providing their valuable time and expertise.

To Writopia Lab’s volunteer staff, interns, and student families.

To Joe Wallace and The Village Bookstore of Pleasantville, NY, for sponsoring prizes for middle schoolers. Among the few independent neighborhood bookshops remaining in the region, The Village Bookstore features a great selection of books and gifts. Their knowledgeable staff is committed to the local community and welcomes special orders! They are located across from the Jacob Burns Film Center, at 10 Washington Avenue, Pleasantville, New York.

Our Keynote Speaker 

Kaley Mamo is a screenwriter, playwright, and filmmaker who writes stories about complicated women and people who make mistakes. She was one of seven screenwriters chosen for the 2025 Black List Writers Lab for her crime mystery script SHELLS. Her horror script, THE WELL, was a 2024 Academy Nicholl Semifinalist and is currently under option at Talon Entertainment. Her plays have been produced in the Irvington Theater Arts Incubator Short Play Festival, the Queens Short Play Festival, Break a Leg Productions Earth Day Expo, and Coastal Creative’s End of the World Play Festival, in addition to earning her Final Round consideration at Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor Summer Residency. She is represented by Harvest Hill Entertainment.

The Recipients

• Gold Key
  Recipients
• Silver Key
  Recipients
• Honorable Mention
  Recipients

Gold Key Recipients

Silver Key Recipients

Honorable Mention Recipients

San Francisco Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

March 22nd, 2026

San Francisco Public Library
Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has served for over one hundred years as the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. The Awards are administered nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and locally through partnerships with regional affiliates.

The Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is administered through a partnership with Writopia Lab, and serves communities north of New York City: Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York.

This year, teens from public, private, or home schools throughout America submitted more than 300,000 original works to the Awards’ 29 categories of art and writing. The H2H Writing Region received more than 2,500 writing submissions and awarded a total of 103 Gold Keys, 212 Silver Keys, and 327 Honorable Mentions. All Gold Keys have gone on to further adjudication at the national level. National honors will be announced on the artandwriting.org website on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

Submissions to the Awards are adjudicated blindly—jurors do not know the identity of student artists or authors. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice.

The growing list of accomplished young writers recognized by The Awards has included Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lena Dunham. Outside the arts, Awards alumni employ their creativity to become successful in any number of ways—leaders in fields including journalism, medicine, finance, government and public service, the law, science, design, and more.

About Writopia Lab

Founded in 2007 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, Writopia Lab fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. 

Every day at Writopia Lab, we witness the transformative power of being heard. Because of this experience, we are dedicated to giving teen writers the opportunity to be read—and celebrated—as part of the broader literary community. To help make this possible, we administer the H2H Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Writopia Lab coordinates submissions, organizes the adjudication, and presents the Awards Ceremony for regional recipients.

Writopia Lab is a nationwide community of young writers that runs school-year and summer programs at locations in the metropolitan regions of New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area—as well as online and in-person programming throughout the United States and abroad. For more information about Writopia Lab’s programs, please visit WritopiaLab.org.

American Voices Nominees

Each year five American Voices Nominees are selected from the H2H Writing Region to exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. During the national re-adjudication of all regional Gold Key works, the region’s American Voices medal recipient will be chosen from among these nominees.

• Joshua Greenbarg of Irvington High School, for Boca Brag and Schmear (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Suzuran Draper of Greens Farms Academy, for Cape May, A Different Year (Poetry)
• Lindsay Miao of Hotchkiss School, for Lessons from Iraq: Why U.S. Regime Change in Venezuela Would Repeat Past Failures (Critical Essay)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Craters (Poetry)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Unicorn (Personal Essay & Memoir)

The Tricia Baldes Prizes

Tricia Baldes, a beloved 8th-grade teacher at Somers (NY) Middle School, inspired countless young people to tell their stories bravely, honestly, and with a true love of the craft of writing. Given in her memory, these special prizes celebrate middle schoolers who demonstrated exemplary skill and promise in their Scholastic entries, and also (as Tricia always did) seek to encourage all young people to keep writing.

• Miranda Cameron, Greens Farms Academy: "Vergiftigd Paars" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Tiffany Chainam, New Paltz Middle School: "Tongues of Two Worlds" (Poem)
• Benny Harkey, Greens Farms Academy: "Watch Her" (Poem)
• Xi Huang, School name TK: "The Unexpected Trip" (Flash Fiction)
• Hollis Koch, Sacred Heart Greenwich: "My Five Memories" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Henry Marzullo, New Paltz Middle School: "The Goblin and the Witch's Hat" (Speculative Fiction)
• Brielle Moon, Rumsey School: "Scaredy-cat" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Selima Ortiz, Rippowam Cisqua School-Upper: "I'm Still Here" (Poem)
• Camille Reid, New Paltz Middle School: "An Ocean" (Short Story)

Special Thanks

To our keynote speaker: Kaley Mamo.

To our esteemed jurors, for providing their valuable time and expertise.

To Writopia Lab’s volunteer staff, interns, and student families.

To Joe Wallace and The Village Bookstore of Pleasantville, NY, for sponsoring prizes for middle schoolers. Among the few independent neighborhood bookshops remaining in the region, The Village Bookstore features a great selection of books and gifts. Their knowledgeable staff is committed to the local community and welcomes special orders! They are located across from the Jacob Burns Film Center, at 10 Washington Avenue, Pleasantville, New York.

Our Keynote Speaker 

Kaley Mamo is a screenwriter, playwright, and filmmaker who writes stories about complicated women and people who make mistakes. She was one of seven screenwriters chosen for the 2025 Black List Writers Lab for her crime mystery script SHELLS. Her horror script, THE WELL, was a 2024 Academy Nicholl Semifinalist and is currently under option at Talon Entertainment. Her plays have been produced in the Irvington Theater Arts Incubator Short Play Festival, the Queens Short Play Festival, Break a Leg Productions Earth Day Expo, and Coastal Creative’s End of the World Play Festival, in addition to earning her Final Round consideration at Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor Summer Residency. She is represented by Harvest Hill Entertainment.

The Recipients

• Gold Key
  Recipients
• Silver Key
  Recipients
• Honorable Mention
  Recipients

Gold Key Recipients

Silver Key Recipients

Honorable Mention Recipients

San Francisco Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

March 22nd, 2026

San Francisco Public Library
Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has served for over one hundred years as the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. The Awards are administered nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and locally through partnerships with regional affiliates.

The Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is administered through a partnership with Writopia Lab, and serves communities north of New York City: Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York.

This year, teens from public, private, or home schools throughout America submitted more than 300,000 original works to the Awards’ 29 categories of art and writing. The H2H Writing Region received more than 2,500 writing submissions and awarded a total of 103 Gold Keys, 212 Silver Keys, and 327 Honorable Mentions. All Gold Keys have gone on to further adjudication at the national level. National honors will be announced on the artandwriting.org website on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

Submissions to the Awards are adjudicated blindly—jurors do not know the identity of student artists or authors. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice.

The growing list of accomplished young writers recognized by The Awards has included Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lena Dunham. Outside the arts, Awards alumni employ their creativity to become successful in any number of ways—leaders in fields including journalism, medicine, finance, government and public service, the law, science, design, and more.

About Writopia Lab

Founded in 2007 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, Writopia Lab fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. 

Every day at Writopia Lab, we witness the transformative power of being heard. Because of this experience, we are dedicated to giving teen writers the opportunity to be read—and celebrated—as part of the broader literary community. To help make this possible, we administer the H2H Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Writopia Lab coordinates submissions, organizes the adjudication, and presents the Awards Ceremony for regional recipients.

Writopia Lab is a nationwide community of young writers that runs school-year and summer programs at locations in the metropolitan regions of New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area—as well as online and in-person programming throughout the United States and abroad. For more information about Writopia Lab’s programs, please visit WritopiaLab.org.

American Voices Nominees

Each year five American Voices Nominees are selected from the H2H Writing Region to exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. During the national re-adjudication of all regional Gold Key works, the region’s American Voices medal recipient will be chosen from among these nominees.

• Joshua Greenbarg of Irvington High School, for Boca Brag and Schmear (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Suzuran Draper of Greens Farms Academy, for Cape May, A Different Year (Poetry)
• Lindsay Miao of Hotchkiss School, for Lessons from Iraq: Why U.S. Regime Change in Venezuela Would Repeat Past Failures (Critical Essay)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Craters (Poetry)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Unicorn (Personal Essay & Memoir)

The Tricia Baldes Prizes

Tricia Baldes, a beloved 8th-grade teacher at Somers (NY) Middle School, inspired countless young people to tell their stories bravely, honestly, and with a true love of the craft of writing. Given in her memory, these special prizes celebrate middle schoolers who demonstrated exemplary skill and promise in their Scholastic entries, and also (as Tricia always did) seek to encourage all young people to keep writing.

• Miranda Cameron, Greens Farms Academy: "Vergiftigd Paars" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Tiffany Chainam, New Paltz Middle School: "Tongues of Two Worlds" (Poem)
• Benny Harkey, Greens Farms Academy: "Watch Her" (Poem)
• Xi Huang, School name TK: "The Unexpected Trip" (Flash Fiction)
• Hollis Koch, Sacred Heart Greenwich: "My Five Memories" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Henry Marzullo, New Paltz Middle School: "The Goblin and the Witch's Hat" (Speculative Fiction)
• Brielle Moon, Rumsey School: "Scaredy-cat" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Selima Ortiz, Rippowam Cisqua School-Upper: "I'm Still Here" (Poem)
• Camille Reid, New Paltz Middle School: "An Ocean" (Short Story)

Special Thanks

To our keynote speaker: Kaley Mamo.

To our esteemed jurors, for providing their valuable time and expertise.

To Writopia Lab’s volunteer staff, interns, and student families.

To Joe Wallace and The Village Bookstore of Pleasantville, NY, for sponsoring prizes for middle schoolers. Among the few independent neighborhood bookshops remaining in the region, The Village Bookstore features a great selection of books and gifts. Their knowledgeable staff is committed to the local community and welcomes special orders! They are located across from the Jacob Burns Film Center, at 10 Washington Avenue, Pleasantville, New York.

Our Keynote Speaker 

Kaley Mamo is a screenwriter, playwright, and filmmaker who writes stories about complicated women and people who make mistakes. She was one of seven screenwriters chosen for the 2025 Black List Writers Lab for her crime mystery script SHELLS. Her horror script, THE WELL, was a 2024 Academy Nicholl Semifinalist and is currently under option at Talon Entertainment. Her plays have been produced in the Irvington Theater Arts Incubator Short Play Festival, the Queens Short Play Festival, Break a Leg Productions Earth Day Expo, and Coastal Creative’s End of the World Play Festival, in addition to earning her Final Round consideration at Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor Summer Residency. She is represented by Harvest Hill Entertainment.

The Recipients

• Gold Key
  Recipients
• Silver Key
  Recipients
• Honorable Mention
  Recipients

Gold Key Recipients

Silver Key Recipients

Honorable Mention Recipients

San Francisco Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

March 22nd, 2026

San Francisco Public Library
Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

About The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

Founded in 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has served for over one hundred years as the nation’s longest-running, largest, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens, and the largest source of scholarships for young artists and writers. The Awards are administered nationally by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and locally through partnerships with regional affiliates.

The Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is administered through a partnership with Writopia Lab, and serves communities north of New York City: Fairfield and Litchfield counties in Connecticut; and Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties in New York.

This year, teens from public, private, or home schools throughout America submitted more than 300,000 original works to the Awards’ 29 categories of art and writing. The H2H Writing Region received more than 2,500 writing submissions and awarded a total of 103 Gold Keys, 212 Silver Keys, and 327 Honorable Mentions. All Gold Keys have gone on to further adjudication at the national level. National honors will be announced on the artandwriting.org website on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026.

Submissions to the Awards are adjudicated blindly—jurors do not know the identity of student artists or authors. Jurors look for works that exemplify the Awards’ core values: originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice.

The growing list of accomplished young writers recognized by The Awards has included Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Robert Redford, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lena Dunham. Outside the arts, Awards alumni employ their creativity to become successful in any number of ways—leaders in fields including journalism, medicine, finance, government and public service, the law, science, design, and more.

About Writopia Lab

Founded in 2007 as a 501(c)3 non-profit, Writopia Lab fosters joy, literacy, and critical thinking in children and teens from all backgrounds through creative writing. 

Every day at Writopia Lab, we witness the transformative power of being heard. Because of this experience, we are dedicated to giving teen writers the opportunity to be read—and celebrated—as part of the broader literary community. To help make this possible, we administer the H2H Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Writopia Lab coordinates submissions, organizes the adjudication, and presents the Awards Ceremony for regional recipients.

Writopia Lab is a nationwide community of young writers that runs school-year and summer programs at locations in the metropolitan regions of New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area—as well as online and in-person programming throughout the United States and abroad. For more information about Writopia Lab’s programs, please visit WritopiaLab.org.

American Voices Nominees

Each year five American Voices Nominees are selected from the H2H Writing Region to exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of a personal voice. During the national re-adjudication of all regional Gold Key works, the region’s American Voices medal recipient will be chosen from among these nominees.

• Joshua Greenbarg of Irvington High School, for Boca Brag and Schmear (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Suzuran Draper of Greens Farms Academy, for Cape May, A Different Year (Poetry)
• Lindsay Miao of Hotchkiss School, for Lessons from Iraq: Why U.S. Regime Change in Venezuela Would Repeat Past Failures (Critical Essay)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Craters (Poetry)
• Emma Yeon of Bronxville High School, for The Unicorn (Personal Essay & Memoir)

The Tricia Baldes Prizes

Tricia Baldes, a beloved 8th-grade teacher at Somers (NY) Middle School, inspired countless young people to tell their stories bravely, honestly, and with a true love of the craft of writing. Given in her memory, these special prizes celebrate middle schoolers who demonstrated exemplary skill and promise in their Scholastic entries, and also (as Tricia always did) seek to encourage all young people to keep writing.

• Miranda Cameron, Greens Farms Academy: "Vergiftigd Paars" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Tiffany Chainam, New Paltz Middle School: "Tongues of Two Worlds" (Poem)
• Benny Harkey, Greens Farms Academy: "Watch Her" (Poem)
• Xi Huang, School name TK: "The Unexpected Trip" (Flash Fiction)
• Hollis Koch, Sacred Heart Greenwich: "My Five Memories" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Henry Marzullo, New Paltz Middle School: "The Goblin and the Witch's Hat" (Speculative Fiction)
• Brielle Moon, Rumsey School: "Scaredy-cat" (Personal Essay & Memoir)
• Selima Ortiz, Rippowam Cisqua School-Upper: "I'm Still Here" (Poem)
• Camille Reid, New Paltz Middle School: "An Ocean" (Short Story)

Special Thanks

To our keynote speaker: Kaley Mamo.

To our esteemed jurors, for providing their valuable time and expertise.

To Writopia Lab’s volunteer staff, interns, and student families.

To Joe Wallace and The Village Bookstore of Pleasantville, NY, for sponsoring prizes for middle schoolers. Among the few independent neighborhood bookshops remaining in the region, The Village Bookstore features a great selection of books and gifts. Their knowledgeable staff is committed to the local community and welcomes special orders! They are located across from the Jacob Burns Film Center, at 10 Washington Avenue, Pleasantville, New York.

Our Keynote Speaker 

Kaley Mamo is a screenwriter, playwright, and filmmaker who writes stories about complicated women and people who make mistakes. She was one of seven screenwriters chosen for the 2025 Black List Writers Lab for her crime mystery script SHELLS. Her horror script, THE WELL, was a 2024 Academy Nicholl Semifinalist and is currently under option at Talon Entertainment. Her plays have been produced in the Irvington Theater Arts Incubator Short Play Festival, the Queens Short Play Festival, Break a Leg Productions Earth Day Expo, and Coastal Creative’s End of the World Play Festival, in addition to earning her Final Round consideration at Berkeley Repertory’s Ground Floor Summer Residency. She is represented by Harvest Hill Entertainment.

The Recipients

• Gold Key
  Recipients
• Silver Key
  Recipients
• Honorable Mention
  Recipients

Gold Key Recipients

Silver Key Recipients

Honorable Mention Recipients

Write-to-Recognition

Game Leader

Leah Ly is just delighted to be starting a new adventure with Writopia Lab as a Game Leader. After graduating from Rowan University with a BA in Radio/Television/Film with a Creative Writing concentration, she has spent a decade professionally entrenched in nerdy and creative spaces. For the past few years, tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) have been her happy place. She is truly the embodiment of the theatre kid to TTRPG enthusiast pipeline. Her passion for character crafting, worldbuilding, and collaborative storytelling combined with her deep commitment to performance has been the cornerstone of her approach to every game. 

Between campaigns, Leah wrote and performed her first original theatrical piece in spring 2023 and has been appearing in independent theatre in the DC metro area ever since. She is so excited to be engaging young people in the power of tabletop gaming with Writopia Lab, where she can create magical moments (and also play all the bad guys). 

STEM Writing

View STEM Writing on the Schedule!

In the STEM Writing workshop, tweens and teens who love science, math, and technology have the rare opportunity to experience how it feels to be a science writer for the week!  

Writers explore journalistic science writing, Sci-fi, and personal science writing, and commit to completing one fully developed piece by the end of the week. The workshop is led by passionate science readers and writers and will be peppered with visits from full-time science writers and editors.

“My son’s instructor perfectly understands his strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, they work amazingly together: she is helping Markian blend in with the other classmates, build his confidence in expressing his thoughts from a structural standpoint and encouraging him to productively put ideas on paper line after line. Everyone is enjoying this class and the time just flies by… Thank you!”

Lilya