penguin creative writing scholarship

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Penguin Random House Scholarship

Penguin Random House is passionate about encouraging the next generation of readers and authors and promoting diverse voices and stories. For 30 years, Penguin Random House has supported this mission through the Creative Writing Awards, which in 2019 entered into an innovative new partnership with national advocacy nonprofit We Need Diverse Books. Through this program, Penguin Random House will award college scholarships of up to $10,000 each to five public U.S. high school seniors, nationwide.

Creative Writing Awards winners have gone on to become professional and award-winning authors. Since 1993, this program has awarded more than $2.9 million dollars to public high school students for original poetry, memoir/personal essay, fiction/drama, and spoken-word compositions. This signature program continues to empower and celebrate hundreds of young writers each year.

Eligibility

Applicants to the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards Program in Partnership with We Need Diverse Books must:

• Be current high school seniors at a public high school in the United States graduating Spring of 2024
• Be 21 years of age and under
• Plan to enroll in an accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or approved vocational-technical school Fall 2024
• All submissions must be typed, double-spaced with a minimum 12 point font size and no longer than 10 pages.
• All submissions with multiple pages must be numbered with a page number and total number of pages (Ex. 1/3, 2/3, 3/3).
• A four-page minimum is recommended for the fiction/drama genre.
• Spoken word entries must upload a typed entry along with an emailed audio format file.
• Only one entry per student may be submitted and considered.
• Freedom of Expression entries must write about the provided topic.

Book bans are on the rise in America, driven by new laws and regulations limiting the kinds of books young people can access—and books by and/or about LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities are disproportionately targeted. Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books believe books change lives, and that everyone deserves to see themselves in a book.

Freedom of Expression Prompt: For our new Creative Writing Award in 2023, in the face of these book bans and attacks on free expression, we are celebrating the power of books and stories. Tell us about one banned book that changed your life and why.

Award Information

Awards will be distributed as follows:

• $10,000 Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word
• $10,000 Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry
• $10,000 Fiction/Drama
• $10,000 Michelle Obama Award for Memoir
• $10,000 Freedom of Expression award for book bans prompt
• One hundred (100) Honorable Mention recipients will receive a “Creativity Kit” gift from Penguin Random House.
• In recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered in New York City and as an extension of our longtime work with local schools there, we will also offer an additional first-place prize of $10,000 to the top entrant from the NYC area.

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Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards

Every generation needs voices to tell its stories and imagine its next chapters, and that’s exactly what the Creative Writing Awards by Penguin Random House has sought to foster. A scholarship program operating for over a quarter of a century, these Awards have bestowed millions of dollars to public high school students for their writing work across a range of forms, including poetry, memoir/personal essay, fiction/drama, and spoken-word compositions.

This year, Penguin Random House and their partner We Need Diverse Books will again award five (5) U.S. high school seniors up to $10,000 in scholarship money through the Creative Writing Awards. The chosen recipients will join the esteemed ranks of previous winners, many of whom went on to forge careers as professional and award-winning authors.

If you are a high school-level creative writer with a piece that you feel must be heard, the Creative Writing Awards program offers your work the opportunity to achieve the recognition and audience it deserves!

Creative Writing Awards Details

• Targeted Group:  Current high school seniors enrolled in a public school in the U.S. and graduating in Spring 2022
• Degree Type:  Scholarship money may be applied to any accredited two-year or four-year college, university, or approved vocational-technical school starting in Fall 2022
• GPA Requirement:  N/A
• Study Requirement:  N/A
• $10,000 to one winner in each of the following categories: Spoken-Word, Poetry, Fiction/Drama, Personal Essay/Memoir
• $10,000 to top entrant from NYC area
• A “Creativity Kit” to fifty Honorable Mention recipients
• Submission requirements for writing samples may be found here:  https://learnmore.scholarsapply.org/penguinrandomhouse/ ONLY THE FIRST 1000 applicants are eligible for consideration.

More About the Creative Writing Awards

As part of its mission to empower and amplify a diversity of young writers, the Creative Writing Awards ensures equal consideration for all applicants regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender, disability, or national origin. Every submission is reviewed through a multi-level selection process with judges from both Penguin Random House and We Need Diverse Books.

Last year, 900 students across 700 high schools and 48 U.S. states/territories entered the competition. The winners from this class, along with those from previous years, have been invited to participate in a professional-development day at Penguin Random House to meet publishing executives and receive mentorship from professional editors!

Wondering How to Find More Scholarship Opportunities?

For students, the scholarship process can often feel overwhelming – from finding opportunities to keeping track of deadlines to applying. That’s why Scholar’s App was made. It’s an  all-in-one, free-to-use scholarship application management service  that helps you find and win scholarships like this one!

If you are a counselor, Scholar’s App can also help you to  connect your students with scholarship opportunities instantly !

And finally, Scholar’s App allows scholarship donors and administrators to take their scholarships to the next level. List your opportunity, collect completed applications, collaborate with your review committee, send award notifications, and most importantly, connect with qualified candidates!  Create a free account  to start improving the applicant submissions you receive now!

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Congratulations to the 2021 Creative Writing Awards Winners!

July 14, 2021 by We Need Diverse Books

This week, Penguin Random House and WNDB are celebrating the 2021 Creative Writing Award winners. The scholarship recipients will virtually attend a week of events, including professional development workshops and a fireside chat with author Mahogany L. Browne . Below, the five winners share a little about themselves, and their hopes for the future. Congratulations to all!

Chloe Cramutola “Why” (Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word), Absegami High School, Stamford, NJ

Tell us about your piece! My piece, “Why,” isn’t only about racism. It’s about the importance of questioning the things we do: Why can we be so hateful? Why can’t we open our minds? Why do we tend to judge others for their differences? The pandemic, the distrust, the anger, and all that I’ve seen on the news were primary factors that urged me to write this poem. I wanted my piece to encourage awareness, so that we can become more unified and accepting of each other—no matter what you look like, who you are, or where you come from.

What are your plans after high school graduation? I’m going to attend ACCC in New Jersey, then I will be transferring to a university.

Do you know what you’d like to do in your career? I’ll be majoring in communications, so, to be honest, I’m not sure what my path looks like from there. All I know is, I’m going to continue to write and share my voice with whoever is willing to listen. Writing is my passion, and I’d like that to be my full-time career someday.

Ally Guo “Superstition” (Fiction & Drama), William Mason High School, Mason, OH What does representation in publishing mean to you?  When I was younger, I consumed a lot of media that came out of East Asian countries. As a result, although I didn’t really see characters that reminded me of myself in my picture and chapter books, this was offset by the primarily Asian casts I saw in my manga and Chinese mythology storybooks, so I never really felt out of place while reading. It wasn’t until I got older and was exposed to more American/European literature, first through school and then through my own interest, that I started to notice and become bothered by this disparity.

Although Asian characters gradually became more and more present in American media, it always felt off to me that their stories usually specifically centered around being Asian. While I think it’s important to examine cultural heritage, challenges, and experiences, I was living through that in my own life, and sometimes I wanted to read about a Chinese girl without having to question and analyze what it felt like to be a Chinese girl. I think that’s why I gravitated toward series like Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus when I was in elementary school; they never made a big deal about being Asian, or coming from any other background. It was just some awesome kids doing awesome things—and all of them were equally awesome.

Tell us about your piece!  “Superstition” is a fantasy short story following a paranormal investigator named Lilith Xu as she’s hired to resolve occult disturbances in an eerie, remote town called Erlheim. Along the way, she feels deeply unsettled by both her current situation and the insecurities that have plagued her since childhood.

Where are you going to college?  The University of Southern California.

What does winning a Creative Writing Award mean to you?  Winning this creative writing award adds ease to paying for college. Additionally, winning this creative writing award reaffirms my decision to study creative writing in college.

Tell us about your piece!  My poem is called “My Mother Rejected God When She Was 19 But I Don’t Think God Ever Really Got Over It.” As the title implies, it is about my mom’s rejection of religion and my atheist upbringing, specifically in Lynchburg, VA. In this poem, I personify God into a man trying to win back my mom’s favor after she rejects him. Although the poem is deeply metaphorical, it is based on snippets of real experiences, including watching televangelists on TV, living behind the Jerry Falwell Church, and my experience of being gifted a children’s bible in an attempt to convert me.

Where are you going to college?  I am attending the University of New Orleans in the fall for a major in English with a concentration in Creative Writing.

What does winning a Creative Writing Award mean to you? Winning a Creative Writing Award played a significant role in how I see myself. I’ve always been insecure about my writing simply because I’ve always felt that I wasn’t good enough to be a writer. I thought that my imperfections would somehow equate to having poor writing skills and creating content that no one would be interested in. However, after seeing that I was selected as one of the winners, I realized that I am capable and that I can do anything I set out to do.

What are your plans after high school graduation? In the fall I will be attending Siena College.

Do you know what you’d like to do in your career? I am interested in a career in the medical field, specifically as an obstetrician/gynecologist. However, I will not give up writing. It’s something that I am passionate about. Thus, it will remain a hobby of mine in hopes that I will publish a novel in the future.

Ajok Thon “(Un)erasable Shade” (Personal Essay/Memoir), High Tech High Media Arts, San Diego, CA

Where are you going to college?  I will be attending New York University (NYU) this fall!

Do you know what you’d like to do for your career? I’ve always been drawn to STEM so as of now I’m hoping to become a physician and assist my home country South Sudan but I would also like to see myself working with the UN someday!

Give us your best piece of advice. One piece of advice I would like to share is: Do not be afraid to step outside of your box. Nothing can truly grow in comfort. I feel like we were taught to believe that hardship, failure, and rejection is where our story ends but it’s really where it begins. With the right tools, we can come out of the other end stronger and wiser. So don’t be afraid to dream big!

Stay tuned for details on the 2022 Creative Writing Awards, submissions will be opening this fall. 2021-2022 high school seniors who attend public schools in the United States and its territories, including the District of Columbia, and are planning to attend college in fall 2022, are eligible and encouraged to apply. For more details and to apply please check back here, or visit the Penguin Random House website .

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