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.
The 2021 It's All Write Teen Writing Contest will accept submissions January 11-March 7, 2021. Please note that the 2021 contest is open to Michigan residents only.
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.