English Literature Programs for High School Students
EC Finder currently lists 44 english literature programs for high school students. Of these, 23 are free to participate in and 25 offer virtual participation. Examples include 826 Valencia Young Authors' Workshop, Ayn Rand Institute Essay Contests (Anthem, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged), and Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) Young Writers Camp.
- 44
- listed
- 23
- free
- 25
- virtual
- 43
- with a listed deadline
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are english literature programs for high school students?
- English Literature Programs for High School Students are curated extracurricular listings for high school students interested in english literature. Each listing includes eligibility, cost, and deadline details where known, so you can compare options and find the right fit for your college application profile.
- When are the application deadlines?
- 43 of the 44 programs listed here have a specific deadline month noted. Deadlines vary by program, so check each listing for exact dates.
- Are any of these programs free?
- Yes — 23 of the 44 programs listed here are free to participate in.
- Can I participate virtually?
- Yes — 25 of the 44 programs listed here offer virtual or online participation.
- Are english literature programs good for a college application?
- Yes — english literature programs are a common way for high schoolers to show sustained interest and initiative in english literature on college applications.
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826 Valencia Young Authors' Workshop
Free, intensive summer writing camp in San Francisco where high schoolers learn craft techniques from professional teaching artists.
Ayn Rand Institute Essay Contests (Anthem, The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged)
Annual international essay contests in which middle and high school students read one of Ayn Rand's novels and write an analytical essay on its themes and characters, with top prizes up to $25,000.
Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP) Young Writers Camp
UC Berkeley-based summer writing camps for 9th-12th graders, offering journalism, creative writing, and dramatic writing tracks.
Cleaver Magazine Editorial Internship
A literary magazine internship in which student editors read and vote on fiction, poetry, and nonfiction submissions, help proofread issues before publication, and write a book review, working 5-10 hours per week.
English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition
A performance-based program running since 1983 in which students memorize and perform a Shakespeare monologue and sonnet, advancing from classroom to regional ESU Branch rounds and ultimately a national final in New York City.
Folger Secondary School Shakespeare Festival
A decades-running festival at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, where middle and high school students edit, direct, and perform a 15-minute scene from a Shakespeare play using the playwright's original language.
Free Expression Essay Competition (PEN America)
An annual essay competition from PEN America in which high school students ages 15-17 write 1,000-word essays on threats to free expression in the U.S. or abroad, with top entries winning cash prizes.
Global Mythologies: Greece and Rome (Johns Hopkins CTY Online)
An online Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth course in which academically advanced students read classical mythology and examine its enduring influence on modern literature and culture through reading, discussion, and writing.
Great Books Summer Program
A residential summer program held on the campuses of Amherst, Stanford, and abroad in which middle and high school students read and discuss classic literary works by authors such as Shakespeare, Dante, and Dickinson with university professors and scholars.
Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) Essay Contest
An annual international essay contest on a set Jane Austen theme, open to students worldwide, with scholarship prizes and free registration/travel to the JASNA Annual General Meeting.
JASNA Essay Contest
An annual international essay contest from the Jane Austen Society of North America in which high school students write a scholarly essay on an assigned aspect of Austen's novels, with a $1,000 scholarship for the top entry in each division.
Juniper Institute for Young Writers (UMass Amherst)
A residential and online summer creative-writing program at UMass Amherst for motivated high schoolers, offering experimentation across genres in a pre-college setting.
LA Times High School Insider
A Los Angeles Times journalism platform where high school students nationwide can publish news, opinion, and feature writing under the Times banner and receive editorial feedback to develop their craft.
Lily McKee High School Fellowship (Folger Shakespeare Library)
A spring fellowship for DC-metro-area high school students to conduct original literary research at the Folger Shakespeare Library, using its rare books, manuscripts, and digital collections under guidance from Folger scholars, centered on a different Shakespeare play each year.
Looking for Shakespeare (NYU Steinhardt)
A four-week online summer intensive from NYU Steinhardt's Program in Educational Theatre in which high school students study Shakespeare's plays through close text analysis, acting, and virtual production.
Marin Poetry Center High School Poetry Contest
Annual poetry contest open to any high school student in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, with winning poems published in an anthology and honored at a public awards reading.
National English Honor Society (NEHS)
A national honor society for high school students who excel in English language and literature, with over 600 chapters that run literary programming, book clubs, and scholarship and competition opportunities.
National PTA Reflections - Literature
A long-running national arts program with a dedicated Literature category, with entries advancing from local PTA to council, region, state, and national levels.
National Youth Poet Laureate Program (Urban Word)
A program spanning 70+ cities/states/counties that identifies and elevates exceptional youth poets who use their voice for civic change, advancing local Youth Poet Laureates toward state and national titles.
NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing
A national program from the National Council of Teachers of English, established in 1957, that recognizes outstanding high school sophomore and junior writers who are nominated by their teachers and respond to an annual national prompt.
New England Young Writers' Conference (Bread Loaf/Middlebury)
Four-day writing conference for high school sophomores and juniors held at Middlebury's Bread Loaf campus, working directly with professional writers.
Oxbridge Academic Programs - Literature
A study-abroad summer program at Oxford or Cambridge in which high schoolers choose a literature-focused major course alongside a minor elective, combining seminar-style discussion with cultural excursions across England.
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers (The Kenyon Review)
A free annual prize for one unpublished poem, open worldwide to sophomores and juniors, with the winner published in The Kenyon Review and awarded a full scholarship to a Kenyon Review Young Writers workshop.
Poetry Out Loud
A national poetry recitation competition, run by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation, where students memorize and perform poems, advancing from classroom to school, state, and national finals in Washington, DC.
Polyphony Lit
An international, student-run literary magazine in which high schoolers can submit poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for publication, or apply to join the editorial board that trains teens to review and select peer submissions.
Pre-College Program - Explorations in Modern Literature (Columbia University)
A Columbia University pre-college summer course for high schoolers surveying modern literature across genres and historical periods to build critical reading, interpretation, and analytical writing skills.
Rattle Young Poets Anthology
An annual anthology from the respected poetry magazine Rattle, publishing about 20 poems by young poets each year, appearing alongside Rattle's summer issue distributed to all subscribers.
Reed Magazine Emerging Voices Contest
Creative writing and art contest exclusively for Santa Clara County, California high school students, with winners published in San Jose State University's Reed Magazine.
Secondary School Program - Literature Courses (Harvard Summer School)
A 4- or 7-week Harvard Summer School program offering college-credit literature courses such as Beginning Fiction, Introduction to Film, and Popular Culture and Social Theory, taught by Harvard faculty for motivated high schoolers on campus, online, or by commuting.
Sewanee Young Writers' Conference (University of the South)
A highly selective two-week residential summer conference admitting a small fraction of applicants, with small workshops in fiction, poetry, songwriting, literary nonfiction, and fantasy.
Signet Classics Student Scholarship Essay Contest
An annual essay contest from Penguin Random House open to high school juniors and seniors, who write on a themed prompt tied to a classic novel for a chance at a $1,000 scholarship and a library of Signet Classics for their school.
St. John's College Great Books Summer Academy
A week-long, discussion-based pre-college program on St. John's College's Annapolis or Santa Fe campuses where high school juniors and seniors read and debate classic texts from the Western canon in small seminar-style classes.
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes - Creative Writing & Literature
A two-week, fully online Stanford summer program offering intensive single-subject courses in creative writing and literature for academically advanced students in grades 8-11.
Student Poetry Award (Poetry Society of America)
An annual national award, endowed under the Whitbread and Bourne bequests, for the best unpublished poem submitted by a student in grades 9-12, judged anonymously by the Poetry Society of America.
Summer Shakes Intensive (Chicago Youth Shakespeare)
A Chicago summer intensive in which high school students train in Shakespearean acting technique and textual analysis, culminating in a week of live Shakespeare performances.
Summer with Shakespeare High School Intensive (A Noise Within)
A five-week summer intensive in Pasadena, California for students ages 14-18 that combines conservatory-style Shakespeare text analysis with a choice of acting or theater technology training, culminating in performances.
The Blank Theatre Young Playwrights Festival
A nationwide playwriting competition for writers ages 9-19 whose 12 winning plays receive fully staged professional productions in Los Angeles with mentorship from working playwrights.
The New York Times Student Editorial Contest
A free global contest via the NYT Learning Network asking teens to write a 500-word persuasive open letter/editorial, with winning entries published by The New York Times.
WriteGirl
A free, year-round creative writing and mentoring organization for teen girls and gender-expansive youth, offering online and in-person workshops, one-on-one mentoring with professional writers, and publishing opportunities open to participants nationwide.
Writers Week (Sarah Lawrence College)
A one-week residential or virtual summer program at Sarah Lawrence College in which high school students take daily creative writing and performance workshops taught by MFA candidates and faculty, earning one transferable college credit.
Writing and Literature Track - NextGen Leadership Institute (Barnard College)
A three-week New York City summer institute in which students take a faculty-led seminar pairing close reading and literary criticism with craft work in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, journalism, or drama, alongside weekly leadership workshops.
Young Adult Writers Program (YAWP) - GrubStreet
A Boston-area creative writing organization's teen program offering free Saturday writing sessions, seasonal writing classes, and a paid three-week Summer Teen Writing Fellowship in which teens work with published authors and receive an $800 stipend.
Young Writers Workshop (Unterberg Poetry Center, 92NY)
A summer creative writing workshop for students in grades 10-12 hosted by the 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center in New York City, pairing writing instruction with access to the Center's renowned author reading series.
Youth Communication - YCteen Magazine
A New York City nonprofit youth media organization where teen writers receive paid work experience and mentorship from professional editors as they turn personal experience into published stories for YCteen magazine.
ECFinder provides links to outside extracurricular opportunities for informational purposes only. Students and families should research each program before applying. ECFinder does not operate or control the listed organizations and is not responsible for their actions or policies.