NCW Libraries Creative Writing Competitions
NCW Libraries is proud to co-sponsor writing competitions for teens with Wenatchee based nonprofit, Write On The River. These competitions give teens in NCW the opportunity to share their creative work with the community.
2025 Teen Writing Competition
High school students (including private, home-school, or Running Start students) in 9th-12th grade in North Central Washington (Chelan, Douglas, Okanogan, Grant, and Ferry counties) are encouraged to submit their original short fiction for a chance to win cash prizes sponsored by Write On The River.
Submission Guidelines
Short fiction can be a complete work (short story) or the beginning pages of a longer work. Entries must not exceed 2,000 words. Writing must be the student’s own, original, unpublished work written by them without the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) generative tools (ex. ChatGPT). Students may submit one piece of writing per year.
Submission Deadline April 11, 2025.
Winning stories will be announced in mid-May 2025
Read winning stories from previous years!
2024 Teen Short Fiction Winners!
Write on the River and NCW Libraries are happy to announce the winners of the 13th annual Teen Short Fiction Competition. Librarians from across the region along with members of NCW Libraries’ Teen Library Council judged an all-time high number of competitive entries....
2023 Teen Writing Contest Winners
We are happy to join Write on the River in announcing our three winners for the 12th Annual Teen Writer's Competition! Jadyn Matson of Chelan won first-place for her fiction entry, "Over the Edge of the World." Jadyn, a homeschooled sophomore, said her best writing...
2022 Teen Short Fiction Winners
We were blown away by the creativity of the short fiction submitted by teen writers from across North Central Washington this year. We want to thank all those who submitted their work for consideration. NCW Libraries and Write on the River are happy to announce the...
2021 High School Writing Competition Winners!
By Jessica, Teen Services Manager We were blown away by the creativity of the original short stories submitted by teen writers from across North Central Washington this year. We want to thank all those who submitted their work for consideration. NCW Libraries and...
2020 Winning Teen Writers
Over the last several months, teen writers from across North Central Washington have been submitting their original short fiction stories to us as part of the 9th annual write here, right now High School Writers Competition sponsored by NCRL and Write on the River. We...
2019 Winning Teen Writers
Aspiring writers from around North Central Washington submitted short fiction pieces for a writing competition sponsored by Write On The River and North Central Regional Library. Three winners have been selected for the 2019 right here, write now High School Writers...
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