Celebrate Teen Voices with Write Rhode Island's Annual Fiction Contest
What is Write Rhode Island?
Founded in 2016 by Hester Kaplan, Taylor Polites and School One, Write Rhode Island is a short fiction competition open to students across the state. Its mission is to promote and celebrate the voices of Rhode Island's student writers. Our annual contest invites young writers to showcase their creativity by weaving Rhode Island -its people, places, history, or spirit- into original works of prose.
How do the Write Rhode Island workshops work?
Students across Rhode Island are invited to participate in free workshops, held in local libraries, schools and arts organizations, to learn the fundamentals of story writing. For our annual fiction contest, We work directly with schools and offer workshops as part of ELA classes and library media classes to offer these workshops. Public libraries and organizations throughout the state also host workshops in the evenings and on Saturdays. Write Rhode Island offers an online class as well. In addition, right before the contest, we provide drop-in virtual sessions with professional writers who help students polish their stories before submitting.
What are the fiction workshops?
The 2026-2027 Write Rhode Island workshops are:
Story Starters: Students will be writing short stories or micro-fiction based on Write Rhode Island prompts. Students will read aloud our favorite scenes at the end (optional, for those who want to share). Students can expect to leave with lots of ideas and the beginning of a story to submit to the Write Rhode Island competition.
Fundamentals of Fiction: Multi-session workshop series where students will learn the fundamentals of fiction, including character, plot, setting, and theme. Class activities will include readings, discussions, in-class writing exercises, and workshopping.
Ghost Stories: Bring ghosts, monsters, and urban legends to life on the page! In this evening workshop, young writers will explore a variety of spooky creative writing workshops. The prompts and activities will focus on the silly, spooky and haunting
Fan Fiction: Students strengthen their storytelling skills while exploring stories based on their favorite K-pop heroes and adventures.
Weird Providence: Rhode Island is legendary for its creepy history, where vampires and ghosts have made newspaper headlines for hundreds of years. In this workshop, we’ll explore local mythology to learn how Providence earned its weird label and write stories with this theme.
Scheduling and Cost
Scheduling a workshop is simple and flexible. Schools can choose dates and times that best fit their classes. We also work with libraries and community organizations. The cost of workshops is either fully covered by Write Rhode Island or shared between the school and Write Rhode Island. We are grateful to our funders for helping to ensure that all students have access to these opportunities regardless of budget.
Submissions. What are we looking for?
Compose a short story. Eligible entries should be a short work of fiction incorporating Rhode Island as a theme. Your entry must be under 2500 words.
The winning entry will be the top four stories that deliver a powerful and engaging story as determined by judges. Our judges look for a story that demonstrates creativity, technical skill, originality, personal voice and use of Rhode Island as a theme.
Selected submissions will be published in a Write Rhode Island! anthology, receive recognition, awards, cash prizes and selected writers will be invited to read their work at public events throughout the state.
- Each entry must be an original and unpublished work.
- Limit one entry per person.
- Please limit entries to 2500 words or less.
- Entries must be submitted electronically. All entries must be submitted through Submittable.
- The title of your document should be the same as the title of your story.
- The link for Submittable is active November 15 - December 13, 2026.
- All entrants will be emailed a list of the winners and an invitation to the awards ceremony.
- Entries will not be critiqued.
- Copyright of entries is retained by the writer, but the submitted copies of the entries shall become the property of Write Rhode Island. Write Rhode Island shall be granted rights, free of charge, to display, publish and otherwise use (in print and on the Internet) the submitted work as well as the first and last name and age/grade of each winner.
- Entries should not be created with any assistance from AI tools or other AI software.
- Entries should not contain any personally identifiable information. Do not include your name, the name of your school or the name of your teacher on the pages on your story. Entries with personally identifiable information will be disqualified.
All entries should be submitted using our Submittable Page. Formatting: Word Document, 12 pt. Times New Roman Font,
Double Spaced.
Submissions period is November 15 - December 13, 2026.
“WriteRI had an incredible impact on the teens at Westerly Library. We're grateful for the opportunity we had to participate in such a great program!”
— Kelsey Matthews, Teen Librarian, Westerly Public Library
“The WriteRI workshops allow us to offer teens the opportunity to explore their voice, use their creative talents and imagination, and develop their writing skills with the help of a published author, right here in our library.”
— Linda Archetto, Head of Teen Services, Cranston Public Library
“I was blown away by the imagination, self-esteem and confidence displayed by young authors in the WriteRI competition. We are proud to partner with School One, to support students’ growth as writers.”
— Pawtucket Credit Union
“Fostering creative writing especially in young adults is critical to lifelong learning and an appreciation for all artistic mediums. Kudos to WriteRI!”
— Sponsor and Judge, Bank RI
220 University Ave.
Providence, RI 02906
Phone: (401) 331-2497
Fax: (401) 331-2497
