We are thrilled to announce The James Baldwin Award for Fiction.

The James Baldwin Award for Fiction, a creative writing award for fiction for public high school students, in honor of the 100^th birthday of the literary legend and civil rights champion. The award will recognize a student for an original literary composition in English for fiction with a first-place prize of $10,000.

We are passionate about encouraging the next generation of readers and authors and promoting diverse voices and stories. For more than 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 six 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 the James Baldwin Award for Fiction. This award is one of six creative writing awards given by Penguin Random House. Other categories include the Freedom of Expression Award, Michelle Obama Award for Memoir, 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.

Since 1993, this program has awarded more than $3 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.

VIEW THE 2025 WINNERS HERE

A selection of the 2025 winning entries will be available to read soon. To read a selection of previous year’s winning entries, click on the year: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019

For more information please visit Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards (scholarsapply.org).