PAST CONTESTS: Autumn '24: Writing. See Award Winners and All Submissions

Contests

Red tree among muted trees

PAST CONTESTS: Autumn '24: Writing. See Award Winners and All Submissions

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

     

Winners

  • Do You Still ...?

    Do you still find comfort 
    In the way the leaves change 
    Green to orange to red to green again?  
    Do your clothes still smell like apples and spices?  
    Do you still drink cider 

  • Candy-Colored Leaves

    "You're changing," I whisper to myself.  

    "So am I," whispers the wind.  

    I think change is good.  

    Change is the way the air cools at night.  

    Change is the way I'm back at school again.  

  • Drive

    Take me on a drive. 

    I'll roll the window down, 

    stick out my hand, 

    let it 

    soar through the air, 

    fly on the speed, 

    fly on the wind. 

     

  • Aurelia and Aspen

         When Aurelia heaved open the heavy, lace-decorated, black curtains in her room, she expected to see something beautiful outside, like that ancient oak tree from when she was two years old, with its twisted branches th

Submissions