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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.