Bennington College Announces Winners of the 2022-2023 Young Writers Awards
Nine students from high schools around the world were selected as winners of Bennington College’s 2022-2023 Young Writers Awards.
This annual competition, which accepts entries in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, is free to enter and open to high school students. A first-, second-, and third-place winner is selected in each of the categories, with cash prizes up to $1,000 awarded.
Young Writers Award finalists and winners are also eligible for undergraduate scholarships at Bennington. Finalists who enroll at Bennington will receive a $10,000 scholarship every year for four years, for a total of $40,000. Winners who enroll at Bennington will receive a $15,000 scholarship every year for four years, for a total of $60,000.
The 2023-2024 Young Writers Awards will officially open beginning on September 1. Sign up to receive notifications about the competition.
Bennington College has a unique literary legacy, including twelve Pulitzer Prize winners, three U.S. poet laureates, four MacArthur Geniuses, countless New York Times bestsellers, and two of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Each year, over 6,800 students submit poetry, fiction, and nonfiction to the Young Writers Awards competition. Bennington College congratulates all entrants on their extraordinary submissions and is pleased to announce the 2022-2023 winning entries.
2022-2023 Young Writers Awards Winners
Poetry
- First Place, "Manhattanhenge / Scrapyard Blues / What moves the needle," Katie Hwang, Dalton School, New York, NY
- Second Place, "Ghazal for Matrilineal Multiverse / Appetence of Vietnamese Daughter / Moonlight on the Ganges," Sunny Vuong, Basis School, San Antonio, TX
- Third Place, "parking lot supplications / Cassandra / (clementine) peel," Anaya Marei, homeschooled, Stockton, CA
Fiction
- First Place, "A Story Woven From a Bucket of Milk," Enkhjin Gantumur, School 1, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
- Second Place, “Untitled,” Caroline Anthony, The High School of the Performing Arts, Houston, TX
- Third Place, "‘How have you been?’ ‘Unlike you,’" Shambhavi Sinha, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Collegiate Public School, Chandigarh, India
Nonfiction
- First Place, "Diagnosis of Familial, Lateral Curvatures," Joanna Liu, Lexington High School, Lexington, MA
- Second Place, "Cat in a Box," Kat Davis, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville, SC
- Third Place, "Riddled Realities," Emaan Abbasi, Lahore Grammar School, Lahore, Pakistan
