By Rachel R.,Teen Librarian
The 8th HEPL Teen Writing Challenge has concluded, and three winners were chosen from the teen entries.
The Teen Writing Challenge was the idea of a student who shared it with the library’s Teen Advisory Board (TAB). The TAB loved the suggestion and felt it was a great opportunity for teen writers to share their creative writing. The Teen Writing Challenge was born!
For the Spring 2025 Teen Writing Challenge, teens were challenged to write an original flash fiction story between 500 – 1,000 words.
A panel of judges made up of HEPL staff and teen volunteers on the Teen Advisory Board read through each short story and voted for their top three entries based on the guidelines of the contest. This was no easy task, as the teens’ entries were all so creative and impressive!
The judges’ votes were tallied, and the winners are…
1st Place: “DEAR KIND SOUL” by Caelin Silitonga – Grade 12, Homeschool
2nd Place: “The Book” by Courtney Snider – Grade 9, Fishers High School
3rd Place: “A Quite Extraordinary Tale About Earth’s History” by Charlotte Fuchs – Grade 9, Homeschool
Each winner was able to choose a gift card from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, or Dunkin’. Congratulations to our winners!
I am extremely grateful to all the teen authors who entered this contest. It was such a treat to read all of your stories and see how each of you tackled the challenge. Thank you for letting us read your stories! Whether you won or not this time, I hope you all will continue to write and share your talent in future writing contests!