2025 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 33rd annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Winter 2025! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6 - 8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, state-wide contest.
Kids in grades 3-5 can also enter AADL's Write On! short story writing contest.
How to Enter the Contest:
The 2025 It's All Write Teen Writing Contest will accept submissions January 6 - March 2, 2025.
Please note that the 2025 contest is open to Michigan residents only. The submission form links will become available on January 6.
For more information about the contest, including prizes, rules and where to direct questions, see the guidelines below.
1. Take a look at the Poetry Guidelines, Flash Fiction Guidelines and the Short Story Guidelines
2. Write your story! Need some help? Check out this Writing Resource Guide.
3. Send us your work using either the Short Story Submission Form, Poetry Submission Form, and/or the Flash Fiction Submission Form
Questions about the contest may be directed to allwrite@aadl.org.
2024 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 32nd annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Winter 2024! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6 - 8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, state-wide contest.
Kids in grades 3-5 can also enter AADL's Write On! short story writing contest, which will accept entries January 8 - February 5, 2024.
How to Enter the Contest:
The 2024 contest is now closed to entries.
The 2024 It's All Write Teen Writing Contest will accept submissions January 8 - March 3, 2024. Please note that the 2024 contest is open to Michigan residents only. The submission form links will become available on January 8.
For more information about the contest, including prizes, rules and where to direct questions, see the guidelines below.
1. Take a look at the Poetry Guidelines, Flash Fiction Guidelines and the Short Story Guidelines
2. Write your story! Need some help? Check out this Writing Resource Guide.
3. Send us your work using either the Short Story Submission Form, Poetry Submission Form, and/or the Flash Fiction Submission Form.
CLICK HERE to see the list of this year's finalists! Congratulations!
Winners will be announced at our virtual awards ceremony, viewable here, on May 18 at 1pm. You can now also click here to see a list of the 2024 winners!
2023 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 31st annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Winter 2023! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Short stories, flash fiction and poems are judged in three different categories: Grades 6-8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, state-wide contest.
Kids in grades 3-5 can also enter AADL's Write On! short story writing contest, which will take place in January and February of 2023.
How to Enter the Contest:
The 2023 It's All Write Teen Writing Contest will accept submissions January 9-March 5, 2023. Please note that the 2023 contest is open to Michigan residents only.
The submission form links will become available on this site when the contest opens.
Click here for more information about the 2023 contest!
2022 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The 2022 It's All Write! Teen Writing Contest is now closed for submissions. Winners were announced at the online awards ceremony on May 21, viewable on aadl.org and YouTube.
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 30th annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Winter 2022! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6-8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, state-wide contest.
Kids in grades 3-5 can also enter AADL's Write On! short story writing contest, which will accept entries January 10 - February 7, 2022.
2021 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The 2021 It's All Write! Teen Writing Contest is now closed for submissions. Join us for the virtual Awards Ceremony on Sunday, May 23 at 1pm on AADL.TV.
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 29th annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Winter 2021! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6-8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, state-wide contest.
Kids in grades 3-5 can also enter AADL's Write On! short story writing contest, which will take place in January and February of 2021.
How to Enter the Contest:
The 2021 teen writing contest is now closed.
Congratulations to our 2021 winners! You can see the winners and read the winning stories, along with all the submitted stories whose author gave us permission to publish their work, below.
2021 Winners in Flash Fiction:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Mary Russell | "The Gift" |
| 2nd | Grace Belanger | "Letting go" |
| 3rd | Jessica Primus | "My Little Red Jacket" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Anonymous | "Sugar High" |
| 2nd | Jessica Jia | "Growing Up" |
| 3rd | Angie Liu | "Little Red Riding Hood" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Eilie Weatherbee | "Gone" |
| 2nd | Chloe Long | "Grief's Journey" |
| 3rd | Helen Schmitter | "In our Kitchen" |
2021 Winners in Short Story:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Grace Liu | "Yellow" |
| 2nd | Jennifer Tang | "the ocean swallows" |
| 3rd | Ella Gonzalez | "FlowerGirl" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Olivia Palmbos | "Mother" |
| 2nd | Kriya Jaiganesh | "Scales and Arpeggios" |
| 3rd | Ioana Dumitrascu | "I Guess I'm Not the Happiest" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Hye-won Yoo | "[238] Trial Run 52" |
| 2nd | Anonymous | "Birds of America" |
| 3rd | Audrey George | "The Gray Fox" |
2021 Winners in Poetry:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Helen Kolias | "Never Again" |
| 2nd | Rebecca van Lent | "Supernova" |
| 3rd | Anonymous | "Blue" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Sean McMillen | "To Stand" |
| 2nd | Gillian Perry | "PUPPET SHOW, DECEMBER" |
| 3rd | Zain Rahim | "Untitled" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Anonymous | "My Honest Poem" |
| 2nd | Madeline Gupta | "My People: In Reverse" |
| 3rd | Chloe Long | "A Hypocrite's Sword" |
Congratulations to our 2021 Finalists in each category! Click the links below to see the lists of this year's finalists:
You can read all Finalist submissions here.
You can read all the submissions to the 2021 It's All Write contest here.
2020 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 28th annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Spring 2020! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6-8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, international contest. Winners will be announced at our Teen Writing Festival on Sunday, June 9 from 1-3pm at the Downtown Library.
Congratulations to our 2020 winners in all categories!
2020 Winners in Flash Fiction:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Riya Rao | "The Tenth Birthday Gift" |
| 2nd | Yufei Fu | "School Days" |
| 3rd | Liah Igel | "A Few Clicks" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Shanelle Felipe | "Button" |
| 2nd | Grace Lee | "The Sounds" |
| 3rd | Christy Delaney | "Pandora's Garden" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Lola Simon | "The Boys" |
| 2nd | Anonymous | "Dark Regrets" |
| 3rd | Emma Blanchet | "Roommate" |
2020 Winners in Short Story:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Jeremy Parker | "Sunset" |
| 2nd | Anita Gaenko | "The Girl With the Sunflower Shoes" |
| 3rd | Anonymous | "Shikata Ga Nai" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Emma Washburn | "Hemingway" |
| 2nd | Norah Armijo | "The Convict" |
| 3rd | Anonymous | "Milk and honey" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Maggie Lareau | "Bright Red Buoys" |
| 2nd | Kat Andrews | "April Showers Bring May Flowers" |
| 3rd | Vanessa Abraham | "Pilgrimage" |
2020 Winners in Poetry:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Devin Sanders | "Caged" |
| 2nd | Bhavana Veeravalli | "Honey-Milk Glow" |
| 3rd | Anonymous | "Blossoming Shadows" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Jeannie Kim | "Planting Peonies" |
| 2nd | Ha Tran Tran | "A Love Letter for Home" |
| 3rd | Rina Huang | "Miss" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Kathryn Lakin | "Survived By... 12/22/2011" |
| 2nd | Elyse Thomas | "star-spangled black girl" |
| 3rd | Danae Younge | "If I Could Pinch a Moment in Time" |
View 2020 Finalist Stories
View All 2020 Submissions
2019 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
The Ann Arbor District Library is excited to host its 27th annual “It’s All Write!” Teen Writing Contest in Spring 2019! Young Adult authors take part as judges each year, who then read and select the winning stories. Stories are judged in three different categories: Grades 6-8, Grades 9 & 10, and Grades 11 & 12. The top three writers in each age group receive fabulous prizes. This is an ever-growing, international contest. Winners will be announced at our Teen Writing Festival on Sunday, June 9 from 1-3pm at the Downtown Library.
Congratulations to our 2019 winners in all categories!
2019 Winners in Flash Fiction:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Allison Xu | "An Old Recliner" |
| 2nd | Kathryn Plotner | "Creases" |
| 3rd | Lauryn Alexander | "Shadow Man" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Syed Ali | "The Pink Raincoat" |
| 2nd | Annie Chen | "Sit" |
| 3rd | Anna Campbell | "Weather and Whimsy" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Julia Somma | "Recycling" |
| 2nd | Caitlin Leong | "emptea" |
| 3rd | Maeve Florence-Smith | "Elk Don't Read" |
2019 Winners in Short Story:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Olivia Palmbos | "First World Problems" |
| 2nd | Kate Castrogiovanni | "A Whole Lot of Ruckus" |
| 3rd | Janae Wallace | "When You're Just Normal" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Elyse Thomas | "Ode to My Father and Jamaica" |
| 2nd | Jennifer Chiu | "Taro Pudding" |
| 3rd | Jordan Fox | "The Bridge" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Tyler Econa | "The Orchestra" |
| 2nd | Savannah Grace | "The Flowers of Seoul" |
| 3rd | Dakota Collins | "Nikola" |
2019 Winners in Poetry:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Emma Blanchet | "Still Growing Up" |
| 2nd TIE | Noah Arinze | "It's Time to Face the Reality" |
| 2nd TIE | Katerina Selene Fruedenberg | "Scar" |
| 3rd | Molly Reiser | "ocd" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Loryn Smith | "dear..." |
| 2nd | Julie Griswold | "(Cinder) Ella" |
| 3rd | Isabelle Fauteaux | "Scorpius" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Anonymous | "Eavesdropped" |
| 2nd | Nikhita Dakar | "An Ode to My Culture" |
| 3rd | Catherine George | "Girl Talk" |
View 2019 Finalist Stories
View All 2019 Submissions
2018 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners of this year's It's All Write contest! The winners were announced at the Teen Writing Festival on June 10 and are also listed below. Stories will be published on the library website this summer! All winners and finalists will receive their certificates in the mail if they did not attend the Teen Writing Festival, and winners will receive their award and prize money in the mail within 3 weeks. Thanks to all who participated in this year's contest! The 2019 It's All Write contest will begin in January of next year.
2018 Winners in Flash Fiction:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Turner Touliuszis | "The Wyvern" |
| 2nd | Anonymous | "Probably Just Teenager Crap" |
| 3rd | Felicity Rosa-Davies | "My Father's Favorite Star" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Elyse Thomas | "Tale of Black Culture" |
| 2nd | Claire Robinson | "Camera Roll" |
| 3rd | Lexie Burns | "Colors of the Dead" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Tanvi Jaikamal | "I Didn't Mean To" |
| 2nd | Deeya Chaturvedi | "Stage Fright" |
| 3rd | Ronia Cabansag | "Dinner" |
2018 Winners in Short Story:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Charlotte Sovka | "Diaspora" |
| 2nd | Anonymous | Level Nine |
| 3rd | Aubrey Pierson | "Mr. Linden's Library" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Kira Brehob | "What's Your Name" |
| 2nd | Annilee Hampton | "Crossed-off Dates and Missed Events" |
| 3rd | Noah Wilson | "Almost Home" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Anonymous | To Us He Is Eliah |
| 2nd | Mary Collins | "Clockwork" |
| 3rd | Karen Liu | "Sunscreen for Survival" |
View 2018 Finalist Stories
View All 2018 Submissions
2017 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest
"It's All Write!" Awards Ceremony 2017
569 writers sent their stories to the 2017 "It's All Write!" Teen Writing Contest! Below is a list of the 2017 winners and finalists.
2017 Winners in Flash Fiction:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Lily Patterson | "25 Pills" |
| 2nd | Madeline Gupta | "The Color Blue" |
| 3rd | Jeremy Klooster | "The Cycle" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Julianna Eng | "A Hymn from a Mother" |
| 2nd | Seun Ajepe | "They Came for My Tusks" |
| 3rd | Jessica Xu | "The Orange Tree" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Darby Baird | "Unseen" |
| 2nd | Mackenzie Konschuh | "The Monsters in Us" |
| 3rd | Miranda McCarthy | "Open New File" |
2017 Winners in Short Story:
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Billie Hoffmann | "Dans le Trou de Lapin (Down the Rabbit Hole)" |
| 2nd | Delaney Christy | "5 Million 270 Thousand Seconds" |
| 3rd | Amber Yu | "Why I Loved You" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Adam Whitbeck | "The Sky and the Land" |
| 2nd | Sophie Nadel | "The Traveling Hat" |
| 3rd | Julia Somma | "His & Hers" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Anya Svintsitski | "Watchman" |
| 2nd | Sara Roza | "Leave the Doors Open" |
| 3rd | Kaleigh Perkins | "California" |
View 2017 Finalist Stories
View All 2017 Submissions
2016 "It's All Write!" Short Story Contest
Around 496 writers sent their stories to the 2016 "It's All Write!" Teen Short Story Contest! Below is a list of the 2016 winners.
6th-8th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Chioma Ilozor | "Where We Belong" |
| 2nd | Deniz Kirca | "My Father's Memories" |
| 3rd | Elizabeth Plotner | "The Cage" |
9th-10th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Samantha Pyo | "Unprecedented" |
| 2nd | Zoe Lubetkin | "To Desire the Sky" |
| 3rd | Tiffany Vembenil | "Dear Dawn" |
11th-12th Grade Winners:
| 1st | Devin Quinn | "Lock's Wasteland" |
| 2nd | Samuel Giedzinski | "The Painter's Foe" |
| 3rd | Katherine Horning | "Coming Out" |
View 2016 Finalist Stories
View All 2016 Submissions
Enjoy the stories and happy writing!