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