We are thrilled to announce the three winners in each category—creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry—of the 2018-2019 Young Authors Writing Competition, hosted by the English and Creative Writing Department of Columbia College Chicago! Our judges selected the winning entries from over 1,500 stories, poems, and essays that we received from around the country and all over the world.

This year brought us an especially talented group of writers, and we are delighted to honor the top pieces. The judges noted that there were many submissions that earned their admiration, and that selecting the winners was a difficult task. If you are one of the finalists or winners, don’t forget to check your email for more information.

We appreciate every entry that we received, and we hope that everyone who will still be in high school next year will submit their best work to the 2019-2020 Young Authors Writing Competition next fall.

In the meantime, please come back to this space soon to read some of the winning stories, essays, and poems.

Thanks again everyone, and keep writing!
Young Authors Writing Competition Team

 

Creative Nonfiction

First place: “Impressions on Hair” by Emily Tian

Second place: “Eat Bitter Sweet” by Kate Li

Third place: “FOMO” by Taylor Fang

 

Fiction

First place: “Flesh” by Grace Wang

Second place: “The Lost History of You” by Jeffrey Liao

Third place: “New Tongue” by Nazanin Soghrati

 

Poetry

First place: “Heritage” by Jonathan Chen

Second place: “Charlie” by Remi Seamon

Third place: “I’m Thinking About You” by Sarah Brownlee