The PenPowered Writing Prize is a biannual writing contest open to students from the United States and Canada.
Category 1: Grades 3-5
Category 2: Grades 6-8
Reading fee: $20
Next deadline: February 1, 2026
Winners announced: February 16, 2026
Join the PenPowered youth writing contest
Three top authors in each category will receive:
1st prize: $100 VISA gift card + Certificate
2nd prize: Certificate
3rd prize: Certificate
Awards
Guidelines
Formats
Short Story
Prose Fiction
Poetry
Personal Narrative
Word Limit
Your write-up should be no more than 1,000 words long. This does not include the title and author information.
AI Policy
At PenPowered, we strictly prohibit the use of generative AI tools in creating entries for our contests. If an entry is found to be generated by AI, the submitting student will be barred from further entry in our contests.