Autumn '24: Writing

Contests

Red tree among muted trees

Autumn '24: Writing

Deadline

Convey the ephemeral beauty of autumn in the genre of your choice, poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction. Let yourself be inspired by the colors, settings, tones, and traditions of the season. 

[Photo credit: "The Last of Fall" by ckodama24, YWP archive]


It's a complex season of interchangeable names (is it autumn or fall to you?) and back-and-forth weather with its echoes of summer and hints of winter. It's a time of beginnings (a new school year and the range of emotions that go with it, from trepidation to excitement) and endings (falling leaves, shorter days). Share your take on the season!


CONTEST DETAILS

  • Three $75 prizes for writing; three $75 prizes for visual art
  • For ages 13-19. You must have a YWP account (It’s free to join!)
  • Respond to the challenge in any literary genre
  • Must be your original work and not published elsewhere. No AI.
  • No limit to number of submissions
  • Prize winners and honorable mentions will be published in the November 2024 issue of our digital magazine, The Voice.
  • Contest deadline: Oct. 25, 2024


    Click here for the Visual Art Contest

     

Submissions

  • The Forest of Dreams

    I trudge down the leaf-strewn road, hugging myself against the frigid bursts of wind tugging at my jacket. I hop over a puddle and glance up as the clock-tower strikes six. I should’ve been home by now.

  • Change

    What can I do to make this stay? 
    To make all the moments, 
    Where we were infinite last forever. 

    To keep the good days for the future, 
    And carry the bad along with my past. 

  • Our Story

    Our story always ends the same

    No matter how many pages I turn

     

    In the end

    I’m the friend in need

    And you’re the main character, always having to help me

     

    I try to rip the pages out

  • Poem 260

    I saw you today

    For the first time in months

    It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages

     

    I used to hope

    We stayed apart

    Never faltering too close to one another

    But as I look into your eyes

  • The Changing

    I love the sound of the wind rustling the leaves in the trees

    The same leaves that in due time turn red and orange and yellow

    The same leaves that protect us with food and warmth and air to breathe

     

  • Fall People

    Fall people are

     

    The silhouette of the man

    on the edge of the silhouette of the dock

    holding a silhouette of a fishing pole

    into a lake

    full of pink and blue watercolors

  • Pumpkin season

    I’m four years old and it’s pumpkin season again. 

    I’m holding tightly to my best friend’s mittened hand 

    and feeling the wind whipping at my face, 

    turning the tip of my nose pink,