5 Young Writers Competitions To Try This Year

Sometimes it’s hard to find writing inspiration in everyday schoolwork, and this is even more difficult during school breaks. Luckily, there are plenty of young writers’ competitions your child can get involved in, all year round.

These writing contests range from elementary all the way to high school levels and are a wonderful, innovative way to get your young author excited about writing. The young writers competitions we’re sharing with you today feature lots of different writing styles and genres, from short stories, to science fiction, to even poetry!

Here are five Young Writers Competitions to try this year with your child:

Night Zookeeper - Star Writing

Night Zookeeper is an award-winning writing program aimed at 6 to 12+ year-olds, and proudly hosts weekly writing competitions that your child can win to be published! Every Sunday, several submissions are chosen and the winners’ work is then published on our website for others to read. Night Zookeeper also issues writing awards to first-place winners, ranging from in-program upgrades to physical books!

Each week, the writing genre is different, ranging from writing a short story about a new magical animal to poetry competitions. All Night Zookeeper’s Star Writing competitions have a distinct theme, and usually touches on current news, discoveries or international days to build their young writers’ cultural knowledge while enhancing their writing skills. It also helps writers with their time management as it teaches them how to work towards a deadline.

For more information, check out Star Writing on Night Zookeeper!

BBC Radio 2’s - 500 words

BBC Radio 2 is hosting a 500-word writing competition! The rules for this annual contest are as follows: you must be a full time UK resident and you must be between the ages of 5 to 13. There will be two entry categories: 5 to 9 years old and 10 to 13 years old. The submitted story has to be fictional and has a word limit of 500 words.

The young writers chosen to win this writing contest will be awarded with original illustrations of their winning stories, and also a very special, printed book featuring all six of the top short stories created by fellow runner-ups.

For more information, check out BBC Radio 2’s 500 words competition!

Young Writers Project - Summer of Stories 2022

The Summer of Stories 2022 competition allows young writers to enter as many times as they wish! For this competition, there is no word limit and the writers may write about anything they want, from creative nonfiction to playwriting! The competition is based in the US and is open to grades K-12.

This competition includes an array of cash prizes to be won:

First place entry (gold): $150

Second place entry (silver): $100

Third place entry (bronze): $75

For more information, check out the Young Writers Project competition!

Rattle - Young Poets Anthology

Rattle is hosting a poetry contest for young writers this summer! In order to enter this poetry competition, the author must be 15 years old or younger and submit a poem of their own. The participant can submit up to 4 poems to be entered in the competition. Other submission guidelines state that a parent or guardian must sign a consent form in order for the competition entries to be accepted and, if successful, to be published in Rattle’s literary magazine.

For more information check out the Young Poets Anthology competition!

WordHound’s - Creative Writing

WordHound’s creative writing competition is in session! Your young author must be 12 years old or younger to participate. Although the competition is based in the UK, you can enter from anywhere around the world! Their short story has to be 300 words or under and the theme this year is the sea.

For more information, check out WordHound’s Creative Writing competition!

Conclusion

We hope this list of young writers competitions sparks your child's interest and love for writing. As always, please share your child's entries with us through our writing program, or via our social media using the hashtag #nzkwritingprompts, for the chance to win exclusive prizes!

If you have any questions or would like more information about our writing competitions or learning program, please reach out via email on [email protected] or through our social media channels: