The 10th HEPL Teen Writing Challenge has concluded, and three winners were chosen.
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 2026 Teen Writing Challenge, teens were challenged to write an original short story under the historical fiction or historical fantasy genre. Stories were required to be set in our world during a time before the 2000s, but teens could keep it as accurate to the time period as possible or add some magical and supernatural elements!
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 submissions based on the guidelines of the contest. This was no easy task, as the stories were all so creative and impressive! Thank you to our judging panel for taking the time to read through each story and share your thoughts and opinions.
While all of the stories received votes from our judges, three came out on top. The judges’ votes were tallied and the three winners are…
1st Place: “The Doctor’s Redemption” by Ella Kern – Grade 11, Homeschool
2nd Place: “Death Bleeds Flames” by Courtney Snider – Grade 10, Fishers High School
3rd Place: “The Showman and the Story’s Heart” by Lucy Waterman – Grade 12, Homeschool
Each winner was able to choose a gift card from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Target, or Starbucks. Congratulations to our winners!
We are extremely grateful to all the teen authors who entered this contest. It was fun to see how you mixed history and fantasy. Thank you for letting us read your stories! Whether you won or not this time, we hope you all will continue to write and share your talent in future writing contests.