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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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An annual national award, endowed under the Whitbread and Bourne bequests, for the best unpublished poem submitted by a student in grades 9-12, judged anonymously by the Poetry Society of America.