Teen Writing Contest April 2025

 

 

Calling all teen writers. This contest is for you! Enter your original short story or poem between April 1 and April 30, 2025 for your chance at winning prizes and bragging rights.

Participation Qualifications:

• Writer must be currently in 7^th-12^th grade to enter.
• Writer must have an active PINES library card with the ARCPLS as your home library or a PLAY Card distributed by an Augusta Richmond County School District School

Poetry and Short Story Guidelines:

• Entries must be a typed and double-spaced PDF, Microsoft Word Document or Google Doc
• Entries must be an original work and must not have been previously published.
• Entries must be titled
• Entries must include the writer’s name and grade level at the top of the document and in the body of the submission’s email
• Entries must not exceed 2,000 words and must not be longer than 5 pages
• Please see the end of this document for a visual example

 

How to Submit:

• Send an email to teenswrite@arcpls.org with the following:
  • Your original work attached, not pasted
  • Teen Writing Contest in the subject line
  • Your name, grade level, title of work and indication of your type of work submitted (poem or short story) in the email body
• All other avenues of submission will not be accepted. You will receive a “Thank You” email within 48 hours of submitting your work. If you do not receive this email, check your spam folder and make sure you sent your submission to the correct email address

 

Winners and Prizes:

Work will be judged on originality, clarity, ideas presented, voice, word choice, structure, syntax and spelling. Winner will be contacted via email between May 1^st and May 14^th. All works of winners will be published to the ARCPLS website.

Winning categories:

• 7^th and 8^th grade
• 9^th and 10^th grade
• 11^th and 12^th grade

1^st place: Regal Cinema Ultimate Movie Pack, limited edition ARCPLS mug and mystery item

2^nd place: Regal Cinema Ultimate Movie pack and limited edition ARCPLS mug.

3^rd place: Limited edition ARCPLS mug

Other:

• No more than 1 poem and 1 poetry submission per person
• You may send both 1 poem and 1 short story within the same email
• By participating in the contest, you are acknowledging you have parental permission to do so
• By participating in this contest, you are giving ARCPLS publishing and editing rights
• Any form of plagiarism or AI generated submissions will result in disqualification from the competition as a whole
• While submitting both a poem and a short story is permitted, each participant is only eligible for placing as a winner once and for one work only

Questions:

Email teenswrite@arcpls.org with “Help” in the subject line.

 

Shelly Example Jones, 7^th Grade

“Apples Are a Gal’s Best Friend”

Apples,

Apples make me happy.

Apples make me pucker.

Apples are a nice treat on the road with my dad.

He’s a trucker.

I like apples in slices, wedges, and dices.

Apples in pies or candied are the nicest.

Apple juice. Apple sauce.

Apple anything. A superb flavor.

Apples in summer fritters: the ultimate savor.

Apples wipe my tears.

Apples make me laugh.

They’ve been here since the beginning and they’ll stay to end.

Apples Are a Gal’s Best Friend.