Congratulations 2026 San Francisco and Marin County Scholastic Writing Awards recipients!

View the full list of works recognized in the 2026 San Francisco and Marin County Writing Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards below!

A panel of professional novelists, editors, teachers, poets, librarians, journalists, and other literary professionals selected these works from 374 works submitted this year.

72 Honorable Mentions awarded to promising works
42 Silver Keys awarded to distinguished works
26 Gold Keys awarded to the most accomplished works
5 American Voice Nominees selected as the strongest regional works

Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for consideration at the national level of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

To recognize their outstanding work, this year's Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention recipients are invited, along with their guests, teachers, and our esteemed jurors, to the 2026 Awards Ceremony for the DC Metro Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!

Date: Sunday, March 22nd, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM PT
Place: the San Francisco Public Library's Koret Auditorium (100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102).
RSVP form link

American Voices 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)

Join a Warm and Invigorating Community of Teen Writers!

Writopia Lab shares a monthly submissions newsletter with a variety of thoughtfully curated submission opportunities.

2026 San Francisco Scholastic Writing Awards

Awards have not been posted yet for the Scholastic Writing Awards 2026. Check back on Friday at 4:00 PM.

In the meantime, we hope you consider submitting your work to multiple recognition and publication opportunities. Most successful writers don’t become published or win awards until they’ve been writing and submitting for years. To help young writers practice submitting and get their work out there in print, Writopia Lab shares a monthly submissions newsletter with a variety of thoughtfully curated opportunities.

Use the signup form below to join our newsletter and stay up to date!

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Congratulations 2026 DC Metro Scholastic Writing Awards recipients!

View the full list of works recognized in the 2026 DC Metro Writing Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards below!

A panel of professional novelists, editors, teachers, poets, librarians, journalists, and other literary professionals selected these works from 2,408 works submitted this year.

310 Honorable Mentions awarded to promising works
198 Silver Keys awarded to distinguished works
95 Gold Keys awarded to the most accomplished works
5 American Voice Nominees selected as the strongest regional works

Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for consideration at the national level of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

Date: Sunday, March 22nd, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET
Place: UDC Student Center Ballroom, 4200 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
RSVP form link

American Voices Nominees

Chelsea Zhu of Richard Montgomery High School for Estrangement Triptych (Poetry)
Ivy Sand of Georgetown Day High School for Hide & Seek (Personal Essay & Memoir)
Zack Lam of Richard Montgomery High School, for How the Other Half Lives (Poetry)
Ruth Pournelle of School Without Walls, for Human Constructs (Short Story)
Amenah Rashid of Langley High School, for On this beach rots the bile of the sea (Speculative Fiction)

Join a Warm and Invigorating Community of Teen Writers!

Writopia Lab shares a monthly submissions newsletter with a variety of thoughtfully curated submission opportunities.

We are also hosting a free 3-hour Submissions Party on Sunday, April 26! This will be a time to connect with other young writers, learn how to identify and submit to literary magazines and writing contests, and receive guidance from published authors on revising and submitting your work.

Congratulations 2026 Hudson-to-Housatonic Scholastic Writing Awards recipients!

View the full list of works recognized in the 2026 Hudson-to-Housatonic Writing Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards below!

A panel of professional novelists, editors, teachers, poets, librarians, journalists, and other literary professionals selected these works from 2,586 works submitted this year.

327 Honorable Mentions awarded to promising works
212 Silver Keys awarded to distinguished works
103 Gold Keys awarded to the most accomplished works
4 American Voice Nominees selected as the strongest regional works

Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for consideration at the national level of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

To recognize their outstanding work, this year's Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention recipients are invited, along with their guests, teachers, and our esteemed jurors, to the 2026 Awards Ceremony for the Hudson-to-Housatonic Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!

Date: Sunday, March 8th, 2026
Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET
Place: The Barbara Walters Campus Center at Sarah Lawrence College, 1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY 10708
RSVP form link

American Voices 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

Sponsored by local author Joe Wallace

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)

Join a Warm and Invigorating Community of Teen Writers!

Writopia Lab shares a monthly submissions newsletter with a variety of thoughtfully curated submission opportunities.

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Your donations help us change the lives of children and teens from low income backgrounds who want to share their stories. And it's not just about creative writing. Your donation ensures that we can provide all of our youths support with their academic essays and college essays.

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To make other arrangements—such as a pledge or to pay or donate by check or through a donor-advised fund—please contact accounting@writopialab.org.

Thank You from our Board of Directors

Thank you so much for supporting the sustainability and accessibility of Writopia Lab’s programs. Our own children, some now in college, grew up in the enchanted and enriching worlds of Writopia and Wricampia. There, they dreamed alongside other eager kids as they embarked on personal journeys through storytelling–crafting tales of dragons and everyday heroes, composing songs that move hearts, penning memoirs that reflected their true selves, and debating ideas that spark change.

We want *every* child to have the opportunity to share their unique story in a joyful and nurturing literary arts community.

Thank you for being part of this effort with us.

—Jennifer Divina and John Plummer, Fundraising Committee Co-Chairs, Writopia Lab Board of Directors

Thank you for joining me in supporting Writopia Lab. Writopia is a very special program. My sons learned so much from their teachers about writing and also as role models. The experiences they had at Writopia of writing from their imaginations then editing their own work, free of the format of a school assignment, has stayed with them, something they can rely on in the work they do today, years later. It is beautiful when communities come together to ensure that all children have what they need to thrive.

—Amy Smith, Writopia Lab, Board of Directors

See the list of our supporters.

Read about Writopia Lab Funding Opportunities.

Congratulations 2025 DC Metro Scholastic Writing Awards recipients!

View the full list of works recognized in the 2025 DC Metro Writing Region of the Scholastic Writing Awards below!

A panel of professional novelists, editors, teachers, poets, librarians, journalists, and other literary professionals selected these works from 2,619 works submitted this year.

345 Honorable Mentions awarded to promising works
222 Silver Keys awarded to distinguished works
125 Gold Keys awarded to the most accomplished works
5 American Voice Nominees selected as the strongest regional works

Gold Keys are automatically forwarded for consideration at the national level of the Scholastic Writing Awards.

Join a Warm and Invigorating Community of Teen Writers!

DC Awards Ceremony

To recognize their outstanding work, this year's Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention recipients are invited, along with their guests, teachers, and our esteemed jurors, to the 2025 Awards Ceremony for the DC Metro Writing Region of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!

Date: Sunday, March 9th, 2025
Time: 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM ET
Place: UDC Theater of the Arts, 4200 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
RSVP form link

American Voices Nominees

Nadia Lach-Hab of Arlington Public Schools for A Taste of Freedom (Personal Essay & Memoir)
Aigerim Bibol of Sidwell Friends for binary bodies (Poetry)
Aliyah Majeed-Hall of Potomac School, for Half Moon Rising (Personal Essay & Memoir)
Tara Prakash of Sidwell Friends, for How do you save a house on flames and everyone in it? (Poetry)
Michaela Frey of Langley High School, for MY HUSBAND AND I TRAVEL (Poetry)

2025 DC Metro Scholastic Awards

Dear Writopia parents,

Many parents have asked us how they can best support their writers alongside us, so we put together a list of tips for you. The keys to supporting your writer are 1) trust-building, 2) celebration, and 3) deep engagement.

TRUST-BUILDING

Be positive!
- Writing can make us feel both gratified and vulnerable at the same time, so whether you are discussing your child’s creative or analytical writing, as parents, always approach a piece first and foremost based on its strengths. This will help your writer develop the confidence needed to keep writing, try new things in their work, and most importantly, share with you more often. Regardless of how silly, serious, or sparse the writing might be, tell your child what it made you imagine, think, and feel.
  - Let us offer the constructive feedback: During workshop, we start by offering strengths-based feedback. Then we work rigorously to help each writer grow as writers and thinkers. Since our instructors are not related to the writers, writers often embrace constructive feedback openly from them. Instructors offer insights and suggestions to writers on everything from character and story development, to literary style and tool usage, to sentence structure. We spend the first half of the week on story development, and then we integrate mechanics/grammar/spelling into our conversations toward the second half of the week.
- Don’t fear your writer’s work, no matter the content! “Fiction is a powerful and ancient virtual reality technology that simulates the big dilemmas of human life,” suggests evolutionary psychologist, Jonathan Gottschall. He points out that the typical plotlines of children’s playtime— barbies and superheros alike — feature rambunctious conflict and struggle. Therein lies the essential value of fiction, he argues. “The constant firing of our neurons in response to fictional stimuli strengthens and refines the neural pathways that lead to skillful navigation of life’s problems. From this point of view, we are attracted to fiction not because of an evolutionary glitch, but because fiction is, on the whole, good for us. This is because human life, especially social life, is intensely complicated and the stakes are high. Fiction allows our brains to practice reacting to the kinds of challenges that are, and always were, most crucial to our success as a species…” In other words, writers help themselves, and all of humanity around them, process fears, decompress, and prepare for life’s challenges often without even knowing it. In very rare circumstances, we will reach out to parents if we are concerned by story content. Read more about our approach here! Main takeaway: celebrate, rather than fear, your children’s zany, sometimes darkly dramatic, and wonderful imaginations. They are a gift to us all.
- Young writers (ages 6-8) are often excited to share their work with you when they get home and/or ask you to continue typing for them as they narrate. Cherish this beautiful moment by typing every single word they dictate with as little editing as possible and with absolutely no criticizing. If you do this, they are more likely to continue to share with you as they get older.
- If your writer is hesitant to share a piece with you:
  - Ask them to show you ONE line that they’re especially proud of--and, most importantly, LOVE THAT LINE! This shows your writers that they can trust you to be positive and “get” them and their stories.
- If your writer won’t share their work with you,
  - Don’t fret; it’s very common. Writing can feel quite personal to them. It sometimes takes a lot before writers feel comfortable enough to share their work with the people they love most.
  - Please know that if you have questions or concerns, or haven’t yet and would like to read a piece, you can reach out to us at any time.
- Email us! At Writopia, we’re happy to discuss any questions you have about your writer’s stories, process them with you, and integrate your insights in the most productive way into workshop. This way, you remain a source of positivity to your writer while we take the lead as rigorous workshop instructors. Email us anytime with your thoughts or questions.

CELEBRATION

Take note of your writer’s goals.
- Celebrate all the good humor or drama and literary style that defines your writer’s piece. Encourage your writer to share his/her/their work at readings and/or through submissions. As writers, we cherish the affirmation that comes from recognition, especially from the ones closest to us. Keep in mind, though, that because writing is such a personal experience, if your writer feels pressured to submit or read by you or anyone else, and that they aren’t in charge of setting their own goals, they may lose interest in the entire process and close up. If your writer isn’t ready to send out work, let them know that there’s no pressure to submit. We will work with them to get there over days, weeks, months, or years of time.
- Let your writer know how proud you are of them for working through the writer’s process. It’s both gratifying and challenging to collect one’s innermost thoughts and put them down in words.

DEEP ENGAGEMENT

Ask questions about your writer’s work.
- In addition to or rather than asking, “How was workshop today?” or, “What did you learn today?” try the questions like these with more dynamic answers in mind:
  - Who is your main character?
  - What point of view is it written in? Is there an “I” narrator?
  - What does s/he want?
  - What is your favorite obstacle that s/he’s facing?
  - What scene did you write today?
  - What part of your story did you share today with the group?
  - Teach me the writing game you played!

Be a role model.
- Reading, writing, taking risks, and supporting literacy and literary growth yourself are all crucial to supporting your writer’s own work.
- Talk to your writers about books, TV shows, movies, and video games that they enjoy, you enjoy, or you both enjoy. Having positive discussions about stories that aren’t theirs is a great way to deepen their literacy and show them how important writing and intellectual discourse is to you and to our society as a whole.

We look forward to continuing to work with your writers as they grow in Writopia! Please do not hesitate to reach out to either of us anytime.

Warmly,

Rebecca Wallace-Segall, Founder & CEO

Yael Schick, Executive Director

Writopia Lab

Dear Writopia parents,

TRUST-BUILDING

Be positive!
- Writing can make us feel both gratified and vulnerable at the same time, so whether you are discussing your child’s creative or analytical writing, as parents, always approach a piece first and foremost based on its strengths. This will help your writer develop the confidence needed to keep writing, try new things in their work, and most importantly, share with you more often. Regardless of how silly, serious, or sparse the writing might be, tell your child what it made you imagine, think, and feel.
  - Let us offer the constructive feedback: During workshop, we start by offering strengths-based feedback. Then we work rigorously to help each writer grow as writers and thinkers. Since our instructors are not related to the writers, writers often embrace constructive feedback openly from them. Instructors offer insights and suggestions to writers on everything from character and story development, to literary style and tool usage, to sentence structure. We spend the first half of the week on story development, and then we integrate mechanics/grammar/spelling into our conversations toward the second half of the week.
- Don’t fear your writer’s work, no matter the content! “Fiction is a powerful and ancient virtual reality technology that simulates the big dilemmas of human life,” suggests evolutionary psychologist, Jonathan Gottschall. He points out that the typical plotlines of children’s playtime— barbies and superheros alike — feature rambunctious conflict and struggle. Therein lies the essential value of fiction, he argues. “The constant firing of our neurons in response to fictional stimuli strengthens and refines the neural pathways that lead to skillful navigation of life’s problems. From this point of view, we are attracted to fiction not because of an evolutionary glitch, but because fiction is, on the whole, good for us. This is because human life, especially social life, is intensely complicated and the stakes are high. Fiction allows our brains to practice reacting to the kinds of challenges that are, and always were, most crucial to our success as a species…” In other words, writers help themselves, and all of humanity around them, process fears, decompress, and prepare for life’s challenges often without even knowing it. In very rare circumstances, we will reach out to parents if we are concerned by story content. Read more about our approach here! Main takeaway: celebrate, rather than fear, your children’s zany, sometimes darkly dramatic, and wonderful imaginations. They are a gift to us all.
- Young writers (ages 6-8) are often excited to share their work with you when they get home and/or ask you to continue typing for them as they narrate. Cherish this beautiful moment by typing every single word they dictate with as little editing as possible and with absolutely no criticizing. If you do this, they are more likely to continue to share with you as they get older.
- If your writer is hesitant to share a piece with you:
  - Ask them to show you ONE line that they’re especially proud of--and, most importantly, LOVE THAT LINE! This shows your writers that they can trust you to be positive and “get” them and their stories.
- If your writer won’t share their work with you,
  - Don’t fret; it’s very common. Writing can feel quite personal to them. It sometimes takes a lot before writers feel comfortable enough to share their work with the people they love most.
  - Please know that if you have questions or concerns, or haven’t yet and would like to read a piece, you can reach out to us at any time.
- Email us! At Writopia, we’re happy to discuss any questions you have about your writer’s stories, process them with you, and integrate your insights in the most productive way into workshop. This way, you remain a source of positivity to your writer while we take the lead as rigorous workshop instructors. Email us anytime with your thoughts or questions.

CELEBRATION

Take note of your writer’s goals.
- Celebrate all the good humor or drama and literary style that defines your writer’s piece. Encourage your writer to share his/her/their work at readings and/or through submissions. As writers, we cherish the affirmation that comes from recognition, especially from the ones closest to us. Keep in mind, though, that because writing is such a personal experience, if your writer feels pressured to submit or read by you or anyone else, and that they aren’t in charge of setting their own goals, they may lose interest in the entire process and close up. If your writer isn’t ready to send out work, let them know that there’s no pressure to submit. We will work with them to get there over days, weeks, months, or years of time.
- Let your writer know how proud you are of them for working through the writer’s process. It’s both gratifying and challenging to collect one’s innermost thoughts and put them down in words.

DEEP ENGAGEMENT

Ask questions about your writer’s work.
- In addition to or rather than asking, “How was workshop today?” or, “What did you learn today?” try the questions like these with more dynamic answers in mind:
  - Who is your main character?
  - What point of view is it written in? Is there an “I” narrator?
  - What does s/he want?
  - What is your favorite obstacle that s/he’s facing?
  - What scene did you write today?
  - What part of your story did you share today with the group?
  - Teach me the writing game you played!

Be a role model.
- Reading, writing, taking risks, and supporting literacy and literary growth yourself are all crucial to supporting your writer’s own work.
- Talk to your writers about books, TV shows, movies, and video games that they enjoy, you enjoy, or you both enjoy. Having positive discussions about stories that aren’t theirs is a great way to deepen their literacy and show them how important writing and intellectual discourse is to you and to our society as a whole.

We look forward to continuing to work with your writers as they grow in Writopia! Please do not hesitate to reach out to either of us anytime.

Warmly,
Rebecca Wallace-Segall, Founder & CEO
Yael Schick, Executive Director
Writopia Lab

WriCampia 2024 Projects

Filmmaking Track

Songwriting Track

Page to Stage Track

Newspaper Track

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