It’s difficult to quantify the exact number of writing competitions in existence — specifically ones looking to spotlight budding high school-aged talent. But whatever that certainly high number is, the options didn’t cut it for Interlake High School graduate and now-Harvard freshman Corlie Zhuang.
“I felt that there weren’t many writing competitions that were run by students and for students,” Zhuang said last week on a joint Zoom call with the competition’s current co-directors, Leslie Park and Stella Kendrick. “A lot of the competitions (in the area and across the U.S.) are run by adults and stuff — which is, like, super cool — but I also really wanted to get that student voice in.”
So, two years ago, Zhuang founded the West Coast Writing Competition, a contest that puts into practice her student-led and student-celebrating aims. (Its application for the 2026-27 school year opened earlier this week; more on that later.) Though it was started in Bellevue, the competition, which has support from the Bellevue School District and the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, is open to high schoolers living in Washington, California, Oregon, Montana, and Idaho. And though submissions cannot go over 500 words or three pages, writers are not confined to a certain style. A poem is just as acceptable as a reported news article.
“A lot of those requirements were originally decided in my first year; I really wanted to give students a chance to write with whatever style they wanted,” Zhuang said, adding that word count was largely a factor of being sensitive to the extracurricular time of both writers and the teacher panels comprising the contest’s three judging rounds.
Now a registered nonprofit, the competition is growing increasingly popular. Last year saw more than 100 submissions across 20 school districts — a number that surprised both Zhuang, who currently serves the initiative in an advisory-esque capacity, and Park and Kendrick.
“I think, as a student, it’s really empowering to see that many people participate, because of the diversity of thought and, also, it’s really accessible,” Park said, adding, “A lot of the competitions I’ve submitted to previously, there is a pretty hefty fee — like, I had to pay up to upward of $50 for some competitions, and obviously that is not an option for everyone.”
This year’s application window will remain open through 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 31 and requires a $5 submission fee. Awarded grant funds are resulting in fairly sizable cash prizes that will be commemorated during an in-person ceremony: $1,000 for first place, $500 for second place, $300 for third place, and $100 for honorable mentions. The theme, as selected by students across the competition’s coverage area, is, simply, The Ripple Effect, which is intentionally open to interpretation. Increased engagement has been drummed up largely by Kendrick, who runs the competition’s social-media pages and consistently posts goofy, self-directed and -starring skits that promote a sense of fun and approachability.
“Instagram really helps us get a wider range of people,” Kendrick said. “Last year, we didn’t have a huge following at all, but this year, we’re really focusing our efforts on that so we can reach all the West Coast and all the places where their students are (eligible) to apply, and hopefully we’ll get even more people to participate.”
Brainstorming her humorous videos, she said, typically comes from scrolling through other people’s accounts — “a lot of students do have nonprofits, but they vary in type,” she explained — and from following up on a “random idea.” “Me and Leslie (sometimes) come up with something, but mostly it’s just kind of whatever, like, comes in the moment,” Kendrick said.
No one in the trio — who all were friends and school newspaper club members before the contest became an integral part of their lives — is planning on conventionally pursuing writing professionally. Though Park says it’s likely she’ll major in English in college, she’s hoping to pursue a pre-law track to make the skill more vocationally sound. Kendrick is interested in international business; Zhuang is thinking she’ll do something related to statistics and, perhaps, a secondary humanities-focused degree. But their pragmatic trepidation about a long-term writing career hasn’t diminished their personal passion for the form or their commitment to a contest that seeks to take the sense of intimidation that often plagues writing competitions like it.
“I wish I had something like this when I was younger, and I think that would have honestly changed a lot of my perspective and how I view my writing — it would have done a lot for my self-esteem, and also for my future prospects,” Park said.
Opportunities like the West Coast Writing Competition, Kendrick posited, are especially valuable as artificial intelligence continues its rise. “Having this competition will separate AI from student work and school itself, and seeing people’s dropping test scores, reading scores, and writing scores across the country, I just feel like this will be a defining moment where we can come together and recognize what’s important in this field and just help other people gain the recognition to fuel their careers and their college aspirations,” she said. “I think that’s really meaningful.”
The trio wants to see the contest continue after all three of them are high school graduates. “We want students to be running it — high schoolers — and I think at the end of this round of (the) competition, we’re going to open up applications from across the states — the five states our competition is open to — so we can get new membership in, and then we will stay on in a mentorship capacity,” Park said. “But ultimately, the direction of the competition will be decided by these high schoolers.”