YWP’s hub of inspiration: All our challenges are here!
Challenges
Weekly
Visual Art
Deadline
Best Moment
Using your preferred medium, create an image that represents your best or favorite moment from the past year.
Writing
Deadline
Year End
As the year comes to a close, reflect on and write about the past twelve months.
Writing
Deadline
Interchangeable
Write about two words that are interchangeable to you. Use the words in place of each other throughout a poem to show the way they connect in your mind.
Tomorrow Project
Writing
Sentence
If all collective knowledge was destroyed, except for one brief but informative sentence, what would you like the world to know?
Writing
American Experiment
What does it mean to be American? Can we still find the answer in the Declaration of Independence — that each person has the equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Writing
Empathy
In poetry or prose, describe the experience of giving or receiving empathy.
Great Artists
Visual Art
Jacob Lawrence
During the civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, this leading Black artist re-examined early American history through radical art.
Visual Art
Jeffrey Gibson
Native American artist combines an abundance of color with messages of freedom, human rights, and struggle.
Visual Art
Jenny Holzer
This neo-conceptual artist's "Truisms," shown here in a 1982 Times Square exhibit, still resonates today.
Great Writers
Writing
C.D. Wright
"Poetry is a necessity of life," this prolific American poet said. "It is a function of poetry to locate those zones inside us that would be free, and declare them so."
Writing
George Orwell
If you haven't read George Orwell yet, now would be a good time.
Writing
Rachel Carson
This pioneering conservationist is considered one of the finest and most influential writers of the environmental movement.
Online Workshops
Visual Art
Photo Workshop: Lighting
Lighting can make or break a photo. It can determine an image's overall quality and impact. Respond to YWP Alumni Advisor Kevin Huang's Photo Workshop 2: Lighting with your own creations.
Writing
Writing Workshop: Free Verse Poetry
Free verse is freeing! You can write any way you like, break lines wherever you decide, and end a poem whenever you want.
Visual Art
Photo Workshop: Color
Color is vital to photography, conveying emotions, setting the mood, and enhancing the overall visual impact of an image. Respond to YWP's Photo Workshop: Color with your own creations.
Opinion & Commentary
Writing
Wonder
What is something that makes you stop and wonder.
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Writing
Sen. Bernie Sanders' Annual Essay Contest
Vermont high school students: Write an essay about the state of the union for the Congressional Record. Deadline: Jan. 12, 2026.
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Writing
YWP is ...
In a sentence or two, what does YWP mean to you? What impact does it have on your life? We'd love to pass your comments along to the good people whose donations keep YWP running! Please tell us so we can tell them! YWP is ...
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