2026 Creative Writing Contest Winners

The Friends Creative Writing Contest congratulates the following winners for their fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and collaborative works submitted in 2026. Thank you to all students who submitted works, and check back next year to participate again!

FICTION

Grades 1–2 Fiction

1^st Place: Cecelia Hendrix, The Case of the Lost Library

2^nd Place: Paloma Guzman, The Kingdom of Happiness

3^rd Place: Adelaide Raymond, Sillychunky the Sloth

Grades 3–5 Fiction

1^st Place: Victoria Cicero, The Last House Rule

2^nd Place: Felicity, Escaping Dodgers Stadium

3^rd Place: Penny Fisher, Helping Hands

Grades 6–8 Fiction

1^st Place: Emily Randa, A Hard Act to Follow

2^nd Place: Preston Weed, Untitled Manuscript

3^rd Place: Alex Schultz, Was it Worth It?

Grades 9–12 Fiction

1^st Place: Maddie Leuenberger, When the Woods Looked Back

2^nd Place: Ethan Ferguson, Vermillion

3^rd Place: Ava Kulesa, There’s Something in my Freezer

NONFICTION

Grades 1–2 Nonfiction

1^st Place: Theo Goman, My Beach Trip

Grades 3–5 Nonfiction

1^st Place: Borys Wiatrowski, How to Care for an Axolotol

2^nd Place: Valerie de Jager, Cancun Adventures!

Grades 6–8 Nonfiction

1^st Place: Jada Wright, An Overview of Swimming and Its Effects on People

2^nd Place: Ava Johnson, Alice Ball: The Nearly Forgotten Innovator

3^rd Place: Charis Wright, Face Painting

Grades 9–12 Nonfiction

1^st Place: Peter Takacs, An Honest Review of Raw Cheese

2^nd Place: Lila Hopkins, The Great Emu War of 1932

3^rd Place: Lilian Woulfe, The Telescope

POETRY

Grades 1–2 Poetry

1^st Place: Theo Goman, On the Soccer Field

Grades 3–5 Poetry

1^st Place: Autumn Imada, Sadness

2^nd Place: Anja Garrilovich, Beaming Sun

3^rd Place: William Wright, Amazing Poetry

Grades 6–8 Poetry

1^st Place: Perrine Briotet, Yellow

2^nd Place: Jolie Mittbo, There Through It All

3^rd Place: Elise Analovitch, Who Did You Keep Safe

Grades 9–12 Poetry

1^st Place: Samantha O’Connell, A Pocketful of Dandelions

2^nd Place: Sam Morris, BirdSongs

3^rd Place: Peter Takacs, Imperma-what?

COLLABORATION

Grades 3–5 Collaborative Fiction

1^st Place: Amia Barnard / Evy Buck / Lucy Buckmaster, Just between Us

2^nd Place: Daisy Primeau / Nora Shannon, The Jungle Princess

3^rd Place: Moresby Walkup / Naha Sadat, The Mystery of the Whispering Pines

Grades 6–8 Collaborative Fiction

1^st Place: Grace Buck / Emmerson Fugate / Anna Lueker, Run

Grades 6–8 Collaborative Poetry

1^st Place: Kaelyn Rauen / Aislinn McNair, The World Sees Us A Certain Way

2^nd Place: Zander Finkbeiner / Jackson Moskoff, The Beauty of the Rain