Young Writers Society

The Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department announces the YOUNG AUTHORS 2012 writing competition. Young Authors began as a local contest in 1995. Since then, this national competition has received thousands of submissions from high school students in fiction and creative nonfiction writing. For the last three years, in addition to fiction and creative nonfiction, we have also accepted short plays. So if you're a 9th–12th grade student interested in writing, we invite you to submit up to two manuscripts in each category: fiction, creative nonfiction, and/or short plays.

This year, in an effort to conserve paper, we will accept only electronic submissions. This year's submission window is between November 21, 2011, to January 16, 2012. Submissions will not be accepted before or after the submission window.

On November 21, 2011, go to http://www.colum.edu/Academics/Fiction_Writing/YA/YA12 for online submission guidelines.

This contest offers an opportunity for you to become involved in the submission process. At the awards ceremony—to be held, as in past years, at Columbia College Chicago—you'll meet peers with similar interests and judges from the writing community (who may include novelists, short story and essay writers, playwrights, editors, and magazine contributors). At the awards ceremony, you'll also have an opportunity to read your writing in an Open Mic Reading.

First-, second-, and third-place winners in each category will receive a cash prize of $200, $100, or $50, respectively. Winning entries will be published in Columbia's High School Institute anthology.

We hope you will submit a manuscript or two (limit two entries per category) for consideration by our judges. Tell your friends, teachers, and high school counselors about the contest, too. Manuscripts will be judged in three categories: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Short Plays. We do not accept poetry.