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