Where We Are: Community Photography Essay Competition
Competition Dates: December 3, 2025 - January 14, 2026
Inspired by The New York Times' "Album" series, featuring photo essays depicting scenes of life in New York City, we invite students to take photographs, alone or with others, highlighting certain aspects of life in your hometown.
You can focus on any feature of your hometown that interests you, whether it's a specific event, a group of locals, an aspect of the area's history, environment, or culture, or anything else. Simply send us six to eight photos with descriptions and brief captions to let us know.
My List Student Review Contest
Contest Dates: January 14, 2026 - February 14, 2026
Students can choose 3-5 works of art or culture, combine them in some way, and then explain in 600 words or less "why we should/or shouldn't watch them."
Students can enter individually or in teams. They can also list any creative expression from any category featured in The New York Times, such as books, movies, restaurants, albums, theatrical productions, video games, dance, television programs, architecture, or art exhibitions.
Open Letter Writing Contest (Editorial Contest)
Contest Period: February 25, 2026 - April 8, 2026
What's bothering you? Who can do something about it?
Following the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Prison" and the open letters in The New York Times Opinion section, we invite you to write a letter of protest or appeal in 500 words or less to an individual or group that can change an issue that matters to you. While your letter should be targeted at a specific audience, its real purpose is to get the public to read and influence the public.
Podcast Contest
Contest Period: April 8, 2026 - May 13, 2026
Create an original podcast of five minutes or less to provide information or entertainment to your audience. You can create podcasts on any topic you like, in any format you prefer—whether it's an interview with an expert, an informal conversation with a friend, a news investigation, a fictional story, or anything else you can think of.
Summer Reading and Writing Contest
Contest Dates: June 5 - August 14, 2026
For 10 weeks over the summer, we'll ask each week: What in The Times caught your attention, and why? Each week, students can participate by submitting a short written response, or they can create a video up to 90 seconds long.
Our Weekly Current Events Dialogue Challenge
Contest Dates: Throughout the school year
We invite students to respond to the news with our daily writing prompts, and each week, we'll publish a selection of their comments in a roundup for the world to read. We'll also be calling on new schools to join the conversation.
More Details About Our Competitions
Here are more details:
Student submissions are always considered by our staff and other experts, including New York Times reporters, as well as educators or professionals from partner organizations. Judging our competitions is blind. This means that when we make a decision, we only look at the entry itself, not the student's name or school.
Winning entries will be published on our learning network. Some may also appear in a special section of the print edition of The New York Times.
Everyone who submits an entry to our competition retains the copyright to their work, even after we publish it.
Approximately two months after each competition concludes, we will announce the winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions. We typically celebrate dozens of students each time.
On the day each competition begins, we will add a link to the competition announcement on this page so that students and teachers can submit their entries. All competitions, except for the Summer Reading competition, begin and end on Wednesdays.
Students can participate in any number of competitions, but can only submit one entry per competition. However, our Summer Reading competition offers a new opportunity to submit entries weekly for 10 weeks.
Students' work must be original and essentially their own. Entries must not have been published elsewhere, including in school newspapers, radio station websites, or literary magazines, at the time of submission.
All our competitions are open to middle or high school students aged 13 to 19 worldwide. University students are not eligible to submit entries. However, high school students (including high school graduate students) currently enrolled in one or more university courses are eligible. Students in their first year of the two-year CEGEP program in Quebec are also eligible. Additionally, students aged 19 or under who have completed high school but are currently on leave of absence or not attending university are eligible. Note: Children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to participate in these competitions, nor are students living in the same household as these employees.
