U.S. Creative Writing Awards
Young writers are our future, and we believe in investing in the next generation of readers and authors. In partnership with We Need Diverse Books, we host our annual Creative Writing Awards, looking for writing with a strong, clear voice by high school seniors who are daring and original.
2023 WINNERS ANNOUNCED

We are honored to announce the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards’ Michelle Obama Award for Memoir.
In recognition of Michelle Obama’s long-standing commitment to mentorship and education, as well as her inspiring leadership in encouraging young people to discover the power of telling their own stories, this award grants a college scholarship of $10,000 to one young, promising writer.
We are passionate about encouraging the next generation of readers and authors and promoting diverse voices and stories. For 30 years, we have supported this mission through the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards, which in 2019 entered into an innovative new partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Through this program, we award college scholarships of up to $10,000 each to five U.S. high school seniors nationwide. In addition, honorable mentions receive “creativity kits,” which include a selection of Penguin Random House titles and writing resources. Creative Writing Award winners have gone on to become professional and award-winning authors.
This year, we are thrilled to announce that we are adding the Michelle Obama Award for Memoir to our program. This award is one of five creative writing awards given by Penguin Random House. Other categories include fiction/drama; the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry; and the Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word. In recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered in New York City, the competition will award an additional first-place prize to the top entrant from the NYC area. Please find the full press release here.
The 2023-24 competition will launch in October. If you are a current high school senior who attends public school in the United States, including the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories, and are planning to attend college – either a two-year or four-year institution –you are eligible to apply in the fall of 2023.
Since 1993, this program has awarded more than $2.9 million to public high school students for original poetry, memoir/personal essay, fiction/drama, and spoken word compositions. This signature program continues to empower and celebrate hundreds of young writers each year and underscores our unwavering commitment to identifying and nurturing new literary talent.
In addition to scholarships, Penguin Random House hosts a virtual development week for the Creative Writing Awards winners each summer that includes one-on-one virtual meetings with Penguin Random House editors, networking workshops, a panel about career opportunities in publishing, and fireside chats with Penguin Random House authors. The week concludes with a virtual awards ceremony.
To read a selection of the 2023 Winning entries, including a sampling of entries published in our 30 Years Anniversary Book, click here. To read a selection of previous year’s winning entries, click on the year: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019
For more information please visit Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards (scholarsapply.org).
Contact us at creativewriting@penguinrandomhouse.com
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED
Our U.S. College Scholarship Award Winners

Isabella Rayner
Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry
Marvin Ridge High School
Waxhaw, NC
Cafecito para dos, sin leche

Madison Corzine
Michelle Obama Award for Memoir
Timber Creek High School
Fort Worth, TX
What I Wish I Knew: A Suburban Black Girl's Guide
Gloria Blumenkrantz
Poetry (NYC Entrant Award)
Frank McCourt High School
New York, NY
Global History 2: 10/26/2020
Karen Yang
Fiction & Drama
West Windsor Plainsboro High School South
Princeton Junction, NJ
Chicken Feet
Sagar Gupta
Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry
Thomas Jefferson HS for Science and Technology
Alexandria, VA
Conversation Starter: How is your English so Good?
Ife Martin
Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word
West Bloomfield High School
West Bloomfield, MI
A Letter to Dr. King

Arianna Steadman
Poetry (NYC Entrant Award)
Hunter College High School
New York, NY
Food for Thought



Evelyn Lee
Poetry
Sam Houston High School
Moss Bluff, LA
My Mother Rejected God When She Was 19 But I Don’t Think God Ever Really Got Over It
Tandika Somwaru
Midwood High School
Brooklyn, NY
Poetry (NYC Entrant Award)
How to Write the Great Guyanese Novel


Orlane Devesin
Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word
Hiram High School
Hiram, Georgia
Evolution of the Black Woman
Jeffrey Liao
Poetry
Livingston High School
Livingston, New Jersey
Museum of My Own History, Age Sixteen


Kiora Brooks
Maya Angelou Award for Spoken Word
Topeka West High School
Topeka, Kansas
The Misinterpretation of Dark Skin
Nora Carrier
Top NYC Entrant
Edward R Murrow High School
Brooklyn, New York
Stories My Mother Tells Me

