In honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, The National Council of Teachers of English has announced “The Next Draft.” This writing competition is for high school students in the United States, and according to the guidelines, students who enter “must be nominated by a guardian or an educator.” The period for nominations and submissions opened on June 29 and closes on September 30. To enter, student writers must respond to one of two provided prompts, and the use of AI tools is not allowed.

Student writing contests are important to our culture, because they help to identify talented young writers early on. Having worked with high school students for nearly twenty years, I have seen how recognition of a creative student’s abilities helps to sustain their efforts to keep at it. In the cultures of US high schools, high-performing athletes and recipients of monetary scholarships are most often held up as examples of an educational institution’s best and brightest. Far too often, our young writers (and artists) hone their craft quietly and without being noticed, because their works offer no spectacle for a crowd nor do they fulfill promises of great financial rewards. But we need to foster these students’ talents and abilities as they grow into maturity and become the next generation’s novelists, songwriters, journalists, and screenwriters.