Announcing our 2026 Young Writers’ Contest!

Spencertown Academy is excited to once again open its annual Young Writers’ Contest to high school students (including homeschoolers) in Columbia County, NY and Berkshire County, MA, grades 9-12.

Works will be judged by published authors and publishing professionals, volunteering their services for this contest.

PRIZES

A total of SIX prizes will be awarded, in two writing categories:

• Fiction – Short Story: Prizes of $350, $250 and $200
• Nonfiction – Personal Essay or Memoir: Prizes of $350, $250 and $200

CONTEST RULES:

• Entry submissions will be accepted until midnight, Wednesday, May 1st. Send entries to: story@spencertownacademy.org.
• One entry per student. Select your own fiction or nonfiction topic. Submissions are limited to a maximum of 2,000 words. No Poetry will be accepted.
• All works must be submitted via email as a PDF or Word Doc.
• Work must be formatted in 12-pt type, double spaced, on standard 8 1/2″ x 11″ pages, with one inch margins.
• Include a story or essay title on your document, and identify it as ‘Fiction’ or ‘Nonfiction’. No personal identifying info on the document, please. If your name is on your work it will be returned to be corrected
• Include your name, address, school and grade, in the body of your email. A phone number is optional, but helpful.

Please Note: once we receive your story we will send you an email with a document for you to sign and send back confirming that you have not used AI to write your story.

Prizes will be awarded before the end of the 2025/2026 school year.

Please note: Last year in the fiction section, there was a first place winner, a tie for second place, and a third place winner. In the non-fiction, there was a first, second and third place winner.

Read the 2025 Winning Works