PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE AND WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS ANNOUNCE

THE 2022 CREATIVE WRITING AWARDS ARE OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

Penguin Random House to provide $50,000 in scholarship awards to
five unique, diverse literary voices of high school seniors from across the country.

New York, NY, October 1, 2021 — Penguin Random House, the renowned trade book publisher, and We Need Diverse Books (WNDB), a national grassroots organization that advocates for diversity in children’s literature, have opened submissions for the 2022 Creative Writing Awards. This is the first year the awards are featuring the newly named Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry.

The 2022 competition launches on October 1, 2021, and closes on February 1, 2022—or when 1,000 applications have been submitted. Current high school seniors who attend public schools in the United States, including the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories, and are planning to attend college in fall 2022, are eligible and encouraged to apply.

Five first-place $10,000 prizes will be awarded in the categories of: the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry; the Maya Angelou Award for spoken-word; fiction/drama; and personal essay/memoir. In recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered in New York City, the competition will award an additional first-place prize to the top entrant from the NYC area. Runners up will also be honored.

Claire von Schilling, EVP, Director, Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility, said, “As Penguin Random House, we are always in pursuit of new stories, ideas, and voices reflecting the diversity of our world, and this starts by creating greater representation in the writing community. It is an honor to host the Creative Writing Awards to identify, empower, and celebrate the young writers who are the future culture-shaping storytelling talent of tomorrow.”

Established in 1993, the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards have awarded more than $2.8 million dollars to public high school students for their original compositions.

“The path to increasing diversity in literature starts with supporting young voices, which the Creative Writing Awards strives to do year after year,” said Caroline Richmond, Interim Executive Director of We Need Diverse Books. “The high school seniors who apply to the awards today will become the published authors of tomorrow, and we aim to nurture their voices from the CWAs and beyond.”

To apply and to read more about eligibility and rules, please visit this website.

Winners will be announced and posted on the Penguin Random House Creative Writing Awards website here in early June.

About We Need Diverse Books. We Need Diverse Books is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that runs twelve exciting initiatives united under one goal—to combat systemic racism and oppression by creating a world where all children can find themselves on the pages of a book. Established in 2014, WNDB strives to support and amplify diverse literature by mentoring marginalized creators, providing resources to diverse publishing professionals, and donating diverse books to schools and libraries nationwide. Learn more at diversebooks.org.

About Penguin Random House. Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, is dedicated to its mission of nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere. The company, which employs more than 10,000 people globally, was formed on July 1, 2013, by Bertelsmann and Pearson, who own 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively. With nearly 275 independent imprints and brands on six continents, Penguin Random House comprises adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital English- and Spanish-language trade book publishing businesses in more than 20 countries worldwide. With over 15,000 new titles and more than 600 million print, audio and eBooks sold annually, Penguin Random House’s publishing lists include more than 80 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors. www.penguinrandomhouse.com

Press Contact:

Elissa Petruzzi, elissapetruzzi@diversebooks.org
Christine Stotz, cstotz@penguinrandomhouse.com

Photo Credit: Wadi Lissa