**The San Diego Writers Festival KidsWrite! children’s writing contest**

2025 KidsWrite! Contest is now OPEN!

Submission Guidelines for the 2025 KIDSWRITE! Competition

Theme: Be the Change

Feel free to interpret this theme in any way that sparks your interest. Submit your work as a short story, poetry, or a graphic story under the appropriate age category based on the kind of school you attend (elementary, middle, or high school).

Submissions open: December 9

Submissions close: March 2 at 11:55 pm

How the KIDSWRITE! competition works:

OFFICIAL RULES: By submitting an entry to the KidsWrite! San Diego Children’s Writing Contest, a part of the San Diego Writers Festival (SDWF), entrants accept and agree to be bound by the official rules for participation as well as the entry requirements for their specific literature category and division. Any violation of these rules may, at KidsWrite!’s discretion, result in disqualification. All decisions of the reviewers regarding this program are final and binding in all respects.

ELIGIBILITY: All writers in Kindergarten through 12th Grade who reside in San Diego County are welcome to submit.

LITERATURE CATEGORIES: The three literature categories are Poetry, Short Story, and Graphic Story (illustrated story).

Poetry may be in any format, rhyming or free verse

Short Story can be a work of fiction or non-fiction

Graphic Story is a poem, essay, or short story told in illustrations, no more than 4 pages long, either hand-drawn and scanned or using a graphic drawing program such as ProCreate. Entries may or may not have captions or thought bubbles

Writers may submit works in one or more categories—for example, one Poem and one Short Story—but may submit only one work per category. Please see Entry Rules / Requirements / How-To’s, below, for more entry information.

AGE DIVISIONS: Writers may enter in the appropriate division for their age and ability:

Elementary (Kindergarten through 5th Grade)

Intermediate (6th Grade through 8th Grade)

High School (9th Grade through 12th Grade)

ENTRY RULES / REQUIREMENTS / HOW-TOS: Only new pieces of literature inspired by the current year’s theme may be submitted to the following specifications:

Title: Give the piece a unique title. DO NOT title it with the theme and not not include your name in the title

Length: Entries may not exceed 1,500 words. For visual stories, stories may not exceed 4 pages

Use of copyrighted material is prohibited. Plagiarized entries will be disqualified

Each entry must be the original work of one writer only. An adult may not alter the creative integrity of a young writer’s work. Help from an adult or collaboration with other students is prohibited

No AI submissions. We do not accept work from artificial intelligence (“AI”) generators or similar. By submitting your entry here, you are attesting that your work was not created, in whole or in part, by an AI generator or similar. Should any portion of your work be discovered to be the product of an AI generator or similar, your submission will be immediately disqualified

Entries may be written in any language, however an English translation must be provided

KidsWrite! makes no restrictions on content or subject matter in writer submissions. However, entries judged to contain “adult” language or themes may not be able to be shared in forums that are oriented toward children

All entries must be submitted via our online submission portal

HOW TO ENTER:

There is no cost to submit

All entries must be submitted through the online portal

Carefully read and follow the submission instructions. All entry fields must be filled out

Please do not use a student email address that only works at school. Student accounts frequently cannot receive incoming email

Include a brief Author’s Bio on an additional page following the story

This is your opportunity to give the reader insight into who you are and perhaps what inspired your work. The bio should not exceed 60 words. The bio should NOT include the author’s name but should include the name of the author’s school

Please do not include your name in your entry

Entries received via any means other than the official KidsWrite! submissions portal will be disqualified. KidsWrite! and SDWF cannot be held responsible for submissions not delivered via the portal

JUDGING AND NOTIFICATION

Submissions will be judged anonymously by an expert panel of authors, writers, and poets

Entries will be judged primarily on how well the student uses their artistic vision to portray the theme, including their originality and creativity

Under no condition may parents or students contact a reviewer to dispute the status or score of any entry. The panel of judges in its sole discretion will select Winners and Finalists for recognition and possible publication

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

Winners will be posted on the www.KidsWriteSD.com website and on Instagram @KidsWrite_San_Diego. Nine winning pieces will be selected (one per category per age group). Awards will be presented at the San Diego Writer’s Festival in Coronado on April 5th, 2025.

Prizes will be awarded to winning entrants

All entrants are invited to attend an Award Ceremony

OWNERSHIP AND LICENSE. Ownership of any entry shall remain the property of the entrant, but entry into this program constitutes entrant’s irrevocable permission and consent that KidsWrite!, the SDWF, and Partners may display, copy, reproduce, enhance, print, sublicense, publish, distribute, and create derivative works. SDWF is not responsible for lost entries. Submission of entry into the SDWF program constitutes acceptance of all rules and conditions.

PARTICIPATING ENTITIES. KidsWrite! is a part of the San Diego Writers Festival (SDWF), in association with the San Diego Memoir Writers Association. Judging of entries is performed by professional authors, editors, writers, playwrights and poets. Learn more about them on our website, www.KidsWriteSD.com.

Questions: contact Heather at Heather.R.Taft@gmail.com

Please put KIDSWRITE! 2025 in the subject line.

Wishing the best of luck to each and every KidsWrite! San Diego Children’s Writing Contest Entrant! Please know that our judges read and appreciate every single entry, and every one of you is a winner to them! Keep writing and creating! — The KidsWrite! Team

“elevating and celebrating strong, diverse children’s voices”

The San Diego Writers Festival is proud to announce KidsWrite!, our children’s writing contest, whose mission is to elevate and celebrate diverse young writers throughout San Diego. Your donation allows KidsWrite!‘s judges and volunteers to continue to run the contest and award prizes to our winning writers, without ever having to charge kids to submit. KidsWrite! is completely volunteer-run; your donation goes directly to providing awards and programming for San Diego’s young writers.

Donate

2023 Kidswrite! Contest Results:

Introducing the Kids Write! Team and Judges

KidsWrite! Director, Heather Taft

Heather Taft is a Navy spouse and mom of two. She was in academia for eight years before becoming a medical writer. During that time she discovered her love of writing for kids. She has been published in Highlights and is working on her first book for kids.

KidsWrite! Judge, Jen Laffler

Jen Laffler is an award-winning poet, author, and educator who firmly believes that there’s genius in every one of us. Her children’s book J is for Jitterbug: A Fanciful Animal Alphabet, illustrated by Tony Perrin, was published in 2016. Jen has published more than a dozen poems in journals, magazines and anthologies.
Jen served as Director of Children’s Programming for the inaugural San Diego Writers Festival and directed the KidsWrite! San Diego Children’s Writing Contest for three years.
Jen believes that there is nothing quite like poetry — the right words at the right times — for creating deep and joyful connection between people; and that fresh young minds are naturally gifted at this kind of connection-making. Her favorite children’s poem just might be “Smart” by Shel Silverstein. www.jenlaffler.com

KidsWrite! Judge Tania Pryputniewicz

Tania Pryputniewicz is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the author of the poetry collection, November Butterfly (Saddle Road Press, 2014). Recent poems appeared in America, We Call Your Name: Poems of Resistance and Resilience and The Rockvale Review. A poetry instructor at San Diego Writers, Ink, Tania also has had the honor of teaching writing workshops to middle school children in the San Diego area. She lives in Coronado with her husband, three children, one blue-eyed Husky and a formerly feral cat named Luna. http://www.taniapryputniewicz.com

KidsWrite! Judge Happy Pham

Happy is the School Librarian at El Camino Creek Elementary in Carlsbad, CA. A true “kid lit” connoisseur, Happy is always ready with just the right book to recommend to a curious child or young adult! Happy encourages children (and adults) to expand their tastes and imaginations through a diverse range of media including podcasts, graphic novels, non-fiction, and fantasy. Outside of the library, Happy volunteers with children’s organizations including Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Odyssey of the Mind.

KidsWrite! Judge Janis Tan

Janis Tan has been a professional writer and editor for over 20 years, most recently as a freelance consultant. Client industries include information technology, education, publishing, telecommunications, media, business, finance, and nonprofit organizations. Janis earned a BA from The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from San Diego State University. She current works as a middle school visiting teacher and chauffeur to her two extremely active children. She is thrilled to be involved in the KidsWrite! Writing Competition.

KidsWrite! Judge Dr. Puja Shah

Puja is a visionary poet who shares her voice through written and spoken word, guided meditations, and teaching. Born in Queens, New York to immigrant parents, she defied teachers who questioned her English skills by winning countless poetry and short story awards in her youth. With over 10 years of nonprofit experience and a long public health career, she has created a campaign aligned with girls rights awareness causes for her multiple award winning novel, For My Sister.

Puja holds a D.M.D. doctorate degree and has completed multiple training courses in yoga, meditation and ancient wisdom. She teaches corporate mindfulness guided meditations and her previously published children’s books have been used in children’s yoga classes.

Puja is currently president of The Shah Education and Exploration Foundation, 501c3. For My Sister is her first novel. For more info on Puja’s work, visit: www.puja-shah.com.

KidsWrite! Abby Vail

Abby Vail is a Middle Grade author from Pennsylvania. The stories she loves to write most often are spooky with a mental health flare, giving kids a fun and escapist way to explore both fictional monsters and the all-too-real ones that live in our minds. She’s active in a Middle Grade writing group and has been mentored by author Sylvia Liu. Outside of writing, Abby is a mother, musician, and enjoys painting murals all over her home.

KidsWrite! Judge Christiana Doucette

Christiana Doucette is a poet and Middle Grade author from South Carolina. She grew up loving e e cummings, Jack Prelutsky, and Shel Silverstein. And then grew into loving works by Sarah Teasdale, Mary Oliver, and Osip Mandelstam. One of her poems has been set as an art song by Opera Composer Mark Buller, and another published in 2021 as part of a Cardigan Press anthology. Christiana is currently revising a Middle Grade novel-in-verse under the mentorship of Joy McCullough. When she isn’t playing with words, she enjoys building baking soda and vinegar volcanos, or mixing together Ooblek with her three daughters, or biking with her family along the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Christiana loves the way word sounds can make you picture a moment. And she loves when words play with several meanings in the same line.

KidsWrite! Judge Teagan Olivia Sturmer

Teagan Olivia Sturmer is an artist and author living on the stormy shores of Lake Superior. She enjoys a steaming mug of Earl Grey and if she could, she would live on peanut butter alone. Growing up, Teagan spent most of her time in the woods playing make believe and rescuing imaginary worlds from imaginary monsters. Now as an adult, when she isn’t creating her own worlds, she directs and acts in local theater productions. She lives with her husband Brice, and their sweet dog Remus in a drafty, old farmhouse on the top of a hill.

Teagan is represented by Amy Giuffrida of the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.

Twitter: @teagansturmer

Instagram: @theteaganoliviasturmer