The Middle-grade Story Contest

• Submissions must be wholly original works and may not have been published elsewhere.

• The author must be in U.S.* grade 9 or below** 

• One entry per month is chosen as a monthly winner. The author of the monthly winning submission will receive a $25 digital Amazon gift card, and we will notify his/her school of the win.

• The author retains all rights to his/her story.

• We will post the story on this platform, as well as our audio feed, unless the author (or his/her guardian) asks us not to. Posts/audio tracks will be removed at any time at the author's request (That is, if the author wants to publish it elsewhere, we're happy to take it down; the author holds the rights).

• FEEDBACK - Due to the popularity of the contest, we can no longer provide feedback on every submission. However, because feedback has been so popular, we will continue to offer it for any authors willing to check out or buy our latest book (School by Nathaniel Hardman). The submission form now has a place to indicate that you're one of our readers and would like feedback on your submission.

• There is no word-count requirement, either on the high end or the low end, but aim to tell a good STORY, not a novel (If your story is more than 10,000 words (about 40 pages), it may be considered in the subsequent month's contest).

• Theme is currently open. In the future, we may give a writing prompt or theme for the month, but for now, choose your own topic.

• Content must be suitable (not too graphic/vulgar) for a middle-school library

• Submissions for a given month are due 10 days prior to the end of the month. Expect feedback before the end of the month. The winner is announced on the first day of the next month.

​

*Foreign submissions are allowed. U.S. grade 9 is equivalent to British Year 10 and is for students aged 14-15. 

**Elementary-school students are welcome to submit, but they will be competing in the same category as older students and may be at a disadvantage.