Bennington Young Writers Awards

The Young Writers Awards are now the founding writing programme within Bennington College’s broader Young Creators Awards. The move places poetry, fiction and nonfiction beside newer creative disciplines, while the writing strand retains a focused identity: it is looking for a high-school writer whose voice and craft survive a very tight submission frame. Students choose one of three categories: poetry, fiction or nonfiction. The competition limits the complete submission, including titles and other text, to 1,500 words. That limit is not merely restrictive; it makes selection and revision part of the work. A fiction writer may submit a self-contained story or excerpt, while a poet can submit one to three poems. In either case, every sentence or line has to justify the space it occupies. Bennington students, faculty and alumni conduct the initial judging stage before an external panel makes the selections. The range of those categories, coupled with criteria that emphasise originality, voice, craft, imagination and complexity, suggests a competition interested in finished writing rather than a single approved subject. CompeteMap sees it as a strong fit for students who already have promising work and want a demanding revision target. The teacher or mentor approval requirement and senior-year application route add practical work that should be planned early.