Writing Competition

Want a motivator to take your students’ writing to a higher level? Here’s an opportunity for them to write for a real audience, and the chance to get published by an award-winning magazine.

Read Bowie's essay that tells how he was able to brave the excruciating world suck stress of baseball tryouts and find awesome.

Read Ally's essay that tells how she found the strength to cope with mental illness through the support of the same Nerdfighter online community.

Read Shannon's essay about the solace and awesome she found on the Internet as a queer trans Catholic kid, and her desire to spread that acceptance to younger people experiencing suckiness.

Read Tori's essay that reveals the unexamined misogyny of the Internet, and what we can do to fight against it.

Christopher Zumski Finke responds to the winners of the Spring 2014 "Fault in Our Stars" essay competition.

We received many powerful essays for the Fall 2014 Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we'd like to share some excerpts that caught our eye.

Read Sohee's essay that brings topics like ethnicity and self-confidence into the conversation of discipline and dignity.

Read Kayla's essay that provides an example of a situation that failed to properly use restorative justice and why that was harmful.

Read Matt's essay about the injustices a childhood friend endured and why he felt students didn't stand up for him.

Read Simone's essay that illustrates the unnecessary hardships caused by the injustice of the punitive system.

Read Reagan's essay about how her karate skills helped her classmate get the support he needed.

Fania Davis, co-founder and executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, responds to the winners of the Spring 2014 "Restorative Justice" essay competition.

We received many powerful essays for the Spring 2014 Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we'd like to share some excerpts that caught our eye.