Update, Jan. 17: Winners have been announced!
Can you tell a meaningful and interesting true story from your life in just 100 words? That’s the challenge we posed to teenagers last fall with our first-ever 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest, a storytelling form popularized by Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories series.
The answer, we discovered, was a resounding yes, so we’re bringing it back for a second year.
We’re not asking you to write to a particular theme or to use a specific structure or style, but we are looking for short, powerful stories about a particular moment or event in your life. We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice, and we hope you’ll experiment with style and form to tell a tale that matters to you, in a way you enjoy telling it.
And, yes, it’s possible to do all that in only 100 words. For proof, just look at last year’s 13 winning entries. We also have a step-by-step guide full of advice that is grounded in 25 excellent 100-word mentor texts, as well as a rehearsal space, published for last year’s contest, that has over 1,000 student-written mini memoirs. Because that space was so successful, we’re keeping it open for this year’s contest. We hope students will use it to get inspiration, experiment and encourage each other.
Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.
Please read these rules carefully before submitting an entry. You can find more details in the Frequently Asked Questions section below.
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Your tiny memoir should be a short, powerful, true story about a meaningful experience from your own life.
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It must be 100 words or fewer, not including the title.
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You must be a student ages 13 to 19 in middle school or high school to participate, and all students must have parent or guardian permission to enter. Please see the F.A.Q. section for additional eligibility details.
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The work should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, written by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.
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Your piece should also be original for this contest, meaning, it should not have been published anywhere else at the time of submission, such as in a school newspaper.
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Keep your audience in mind. You’re writing for a family newspaper, so, for example, no curse words, please.
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Only one entry per student is allowed. And while many of our contests allow students to work in teams, for this one you must work alone.
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New for 2023: As part of your submission, you must also submit an “artist’s statement” that describes your process. These statements, which will not be used to choose finalists, help us to design and refine our contests. See the F.A.Q. below to learn more.
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All entries must be submitted by Nov. 1, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific using the submission form at the bottom of this post. Entries submitted via the comments section will not be read by our judges.
Resources for Teachers and Students
How do you write a tiny memoir? Check out these helpful resources:
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A step-by-step guide for writing a 100-word narrative: This guide walks you through six steps, from reading examples of tiny memoirs, to brainstorming your own meaningful life moments, to writing and editing your final piece.
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Writing prompts: Our step-by-step guide has a related PDF full of prompts to help students brainstorm “meaningful moments” from their lives. If those aren’t enough, you can find many more questions to inspire you in our updated list of 525 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing.
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Two “rehearsal spaces” for teenagers to experiment: Last year, we published a student forum asking, “What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words?” In it, we lead students through a few questions, and provide a few examples, to show them how. Because that space already has over 1,000 comments, we’re keeping it open for students to use again this year. This year we’re asking “What Small Moments From Your Life Do You Think About Often?” and are again inviting our audience to use it as a place to brainstorm topics and try out techniques, as well as find inspiration and encouragement for their writing.
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Two lesson plans inspired by Times columns that tell tiny stories: Our main inspiration for this contest is Tiny Love Stories, a series from the Modern Love column that invites readers to submit 100-word stories about relationships. Here is a lesson plan that can help you teach and learn with this column. You can also find short memoirs in the Metropolitan Diary column, where readers submit tales about New York City. Here is a lesson plan and a writing prompt you can use to teach and learn with that feature.
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A lesson plan on fixing wordy writing — in your personal narratives, or anywhere else.
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A personal narrative writing unit: This unit includes mentor texts, writing prompts, lesson plans, videos and on-demand webinars that teach the skills essential for any kind of narrative writing. (Yes, they were developed for our original narrative contest, but the tips for making your writing shine apply to this format too.)
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Our contest rubric: These are the criteria we will use to judge this contest. Keep them handy to make sure your piece meets all of the qualifications before entering.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? Post your query in the comments or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
QUESTIONS ABOUT WRITING
What is a personal narrative?
A personal narrative is an essay about an experience from your life. It is a type of nonfiction writing, which means that whatever you choose to write about should be true. And keep in mind the “personal” in personal narrative; you should tell your own story, not someone else’s.
Personal narratives can take many different forms, but for this contest, we’re asking you to tell a story. That means you should focus on a particular moment. There should be a clear narrative arc — a beginning, a middle and an end — that is driven by a conflict of some kind, which eventually gets resolved or spurs an attempt at an ongoing life change.
Keep in mind, however, that any story from your life can work. It doesn’t have to be the most dramatic thing that has ever happened to you; it can, instead, be about baking brownies with your brother, or a conversation you had on Tuesday’s bus ride to school. What matters is that readers understand why this moment was meaningful to you and perhaps take away some greater meaning or message they can relate to.
Yes, all this can all be done even in 100 words, and our step-by-step guide, and last year’s winners, can show you how.
How can I make my 100-word narrative stand out?
While we are asking you to write your personal narrative in the form of a story, we’re not asking you to use a particular structure, style or tone. We hope this is where you’ll have fun.
We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice — with the words and phrases you use in your everyday life and your specific sense of humor and emotion. You might experiment with technique, such as dropping your reader into a scene, using details to show instead of tell, integrating dialogue purposefully, or trying out creative storytelling forms (read last year’s winning story “Baby Tim” to see what we mean).
And remember, with only 100 words to tell your story, every word matters. The editors of Tiny Love Stories suggest approaching your piece as you would a poem, playing with sound, punctuation, sentence length and repetition to make each syllable count.
You can find examples of all of these writing moves and more in last year’s winning essays, as well as in our step-by-step guide for writing a 100-word narrative and our personal narrative writing unit.
I don’t know what to write about. Where should I start?
Everyone has a story to tell. Don’t believe us? Take a look at last year’s winning mini memoirs to see the range of topics — big and small, serious and lighthearted, emotional and laugh-out-loud funny — that students wrote about.
Then you might respond to some writing prompts that get you thinking about meaningful moments from your own life. Start with our student forum “What Story From Your Life Can You Tell in 100 Words?” and this PDF of prompts taken from our step-by-step guide. For more inspiration, scroll through our list of 525 Prompts for Narrative and Personal Writing that includes questions about childhood memories, friendship, travel, social media, food, sports, school and more.
After you’ve responded to a few questions or categories that interest you, you might choose one that you enjoyed writing about to turn into your final memoir.
Where can I find examples of personal narratives in The Times?
The Times is full of personal narratives — on life, love, family, rites of passage, our animal friends, living with disabilities and navigating anxiety.
For examples of mini memoirs like the ones we’re asking you to write for this contest, look at Tiny Love Stories, a series from the Modern Love column that invites readers to submit 100-word stories about relationships, or Metropolitan Diary, a long-running column of short reader tales from New York City.
Plus, there are the winners of our first-ever 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest and our traditional Student Personal Narrative Contest from 2021, 2020 and 2019.
QUESTIONS ABOUT JUDGING
How will my 100-word narrative be judged?
Your work will be read by New York Times journalists as well as by Learning Network staff members and educators from around the United States. We will use this rubric to judge entries.
What’s the prize?
Having your work published on The Learning Network and being eligible to be chosen to have your work published in the print editions of The New York Times.
When will the winners be announced?
We plan to announce winners in early January 2024.
My essay wasn’t selected as a winner. Can you tell me why?
We typically receive thousands of entries for our contests, so unfortunately, our team does not have the capacity to provide individual feedback on each student’s essay.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE RULES
Why are you asking for an Artist’s Statement about our process this year? What will you do with it?
All of us who work on The Learning Network are former teachers. One of the many things we miss, now that we work in a newsroom rather than a classroom, is being able to see how students are reacting to our “assignments” in real time — and to offer help, or tweaks, to make those assignments better. We’re asking you to reflect on what you did and why, and what was hard or easy about it, in large part so that we can improve our contests and the curriculum we create to support them.
Another reason? We have heard from many teachers that writing these statements is immensely helpful to students. Stepping back from a piece and trying to put into words what you wanted to express, and why and how you made artistic choices to do that, can help you see your piece anew and figure out how to make it stronger. For our staff, they offer important context that help us understand individual students and submissions, and learn more about the conditions under which kids around the world create.
We won’t be using your statements to choose our finalists, or publishing them alongside the winning work. Instead, they will strictly be for our staff to read. If we later decide to post something about student process using these statements, we will ask for your permission before quoting you. In other words, this is fairly informal; just be yourself and be honest in telling us as much as you can about how you worked and why.
Who is eligible to participate in this contest?
This contest is open to students ages 13 to 19 who are in middle school or high school around the world. College students cannot submit an entry. However, high school students (including high school postgraduate students) who are taking one or more college classes can participate. Students attending their first year of a two-year CEGEP in Quebec Province can also participate. In addition, students age 19 or under who have completed high school but are taking a gap year or are otherwise not enrolled in college can participate.
The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Nor are students who live in the same household as those employees.
My piece was published in my school newspaper. Can I submit it to this contest?
No. We ask that your 100-word narrative be original for this contest. Please don’t submit anything you have already had published at the time of submission, whether in a school newspaper, for another contest or anywhere else.
Whom can I contact if I have questions about this contest or am having issues submitting my entry?
Leave a comment on this post or write to us at LNFeedback@nytimes.com.
QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHING WITH THIS CONTEST
I’m a teacher. What resources do you have to help me teach with this contest?
Start with our step-by-step guide for entering this contest and take a look at last year’s winning entries.
We also have a full unit plan for personal narrative writing. It includes writing prompts, mentor texts, lesson plans and on-demand webinars that teach the narrative writing skills essential for this contest.
Do my students need a New York Times subscription to access these resources?
No.
Students can get free access to Times pieces through The Learning Network. All the activities for students on our site, including mentor texts and writing prompts, plus the Times articles they link to, are free. Students can search for articles using the search tool on our home page.
However, if you are interested in learning more about school subscriptions, visit this page.
Submission Form
This contest is closed.
