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NARRATIVE HIGH SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST

A writing contest open to high school students grades 9-12 in the US and abroad, varying genre from year to year. You have the chance to receive more than $1,000 in winning prizes, mentorship by esteemed Narrative editors and authors, and publication in Narrative, which reaches our global readership of 300,000. Stay tuned! The winners and finalists for our Eighth Annual High School Contest will be announced in mid-April 2023.

EXPLORE OUR LIBRARY BY THEME

Thematic tags, ranging from “Love” to “Justice & Equality” to “The Writing Life,” enable you to explore Our Library according to your interests, drawing connective threads among works deep in the archive.

WRITERS & MENTORS VIDEOS

From time to time, we all need a bit of inspiration to guide us through the writing process. Look no further. Here you’ll find videos featuring Jericho Brown, Javier Zamora, Carol Edgarian, and some of our High School Contest winners, as well as audio advice from Naomi Shihab Nye.

RECOMMENDED READING GUIDE

Curated reading lists of literature, writing advice, and other creative fodder from the Narrative Library, designed to provide you with a “best of” hits list across genre and form.

Happy reading, and happy writing! Remember that you can always contact us at schools@narrativemagazine.com with any questions, musings, and ideas.

Gifted and sweet, Matilda White goes largely unnoticed by her less-than-loving parents. Things only get worse when she goes to school. Luckily, her teacher, Miss Honey, helps Matilda discover how special she is and encourages her to create the life she dreams about.

When Ivy moves in across the street, Bean is sure they won't be friends. They are just too different. However, when Ivy helps Bean get away from her sister, who is trying to get Bean in trouble, a friendship blossoms between the unlikely pair. Kids who enjoy this book can read the whole series over the summer.

When Mary decides to give some fresh-picked wild blueberries to a neighbor, she starts a chain reaction of kindness. After Mrs. Bishop makes and shares newly-made cake, her recipients go on to spread kindness to others they meet. Mary might be a common little girl, but she learns that even children can help make the world a better place.

Frederick is a mouse who lives with his family in a large field. During the summer, all of the mice begin to store food to prepare for the cold winter months.All of the mice except Frederick, that is. Instead, Frederick collects things such as rays of sun, rainbows and words.Although the others think he is stupid, they come to learn that everyone's contribution counts.

Stories of immigrants attract me a lot, especially the life stories of Italians who have come to America since the 1700s. In each of these stories I see elements of my own story, that of leaving my birthplace and family and creating a new life in a different culture and in a different language.

The child of Italian immigrants and an award-winning scholar of Italian literature, in the book My Two Italies Joseph Luzzi struggled to create or find his own identity from an early age. Even more problematic for him was “which” Italy to “choose,” the one he inherited(继承) from his family, poor and linked to old traditions and customs he finds rude and somewhat cruel, or the one he finds in literature and art books that show him a country with a modern literary culture.

The choice becomes even sadder as in his professional life he becomes a scholar of Italian literature and culture. He describes episodes of his youth that show the clash between the first and the second generation immigrants that are both funny and tragicomic(悲喜剧式的). These episodes highlight the daily customs his parents brought from their hometown that are in conflict with Joseph’s desire to “fit in” the American culture. Joseph’s visits to Italy as a student and then as a scholar deepen the divide between his two Italies and highlight his quest for identity.

The author’s personal changes are full of quotes and comments on the cultural and political landscape of Italy. I find that his insights on contemporary Italian cultural and political phenomena are particularly interesting. In this book, Joseph touches or comments in depth about several issues concerning Italian life, such as the relationship between dialects(方言) and the official “Italian” language, and the Southern “question” or the uneasy interaction between Northern and Southern Italians.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is personal, moving, educational and entertaining. I hope you will enioy it too!