The U.S. Creative Writing Awards by Penguin Random House awards up to $10,000 each to six high school seniors nationwide who demonstrate exceptional creative writing talent through five named award categories: the Chinua Achebe Award for Freedom of Expression (respond to prompt about a banned book), James Baldwin Award for Fiction, Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry, and Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word. An additional NYC Entrant Award is given to the top writer from the New York City area. Winners participate in a virtual development week including one-on-one meetings with Penguin Random House editors, networking workshops, and author chats. The program celebrates literary achievement among public school students and provides a pathway into the publishing world.
Open to current high school seniors at public high schools in the United States who are graduating in spring of the award year and plan to enroll in an accredited two- or four-year college, university, or vocational-technical school the following fall.
Applicants must submit one original literary composition in English in one of the eligible categories: the Chinua Achebe Award (responds to banned book prompt), Fiction, Memoir, Poetry, or Spoken Word. Applications are submitted online through Scholarship America and close when 1,000 submissions are received or by the deadline, whichever comes first.
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