Submission Guidelines

Submission Guidelines

Portfolio submissions for the 2024-25 school year are now closed. Submissions for the 2025-26 school year will open in August 2024. 

1. All students in grades 8-11 during the 2024-2025 school year are eligible to apply.

2. Your submission should include no fewer than five and no more than seven samples of original work written or revised during the last year. Your submission should be no longer than 4,000 words or 20 pages. 

• The samples must represent at least two of the following genres: 
  • Poetry
  • Fiction (including novel excerpts)
  • Personal essay/memoir
  • Screenwriting
  • Playwriting
  • Hybrid genre
  • Experimental/unclassifiable writing
  • Comics

3. Please submit all written work as PDF files. Video/audio may be submitted as mp3, mp4, .mov, or YouTube links. Include the name of the genre in the file name. For example, if you are submitting poetry and personal essay, you should create separate PDF files titled "poetry" and "personal essay." Text-based work should be typed, in a standard format and font, double-spaced for prose, single-spaced for poetry—unless deviations are deliberate and integral to the text.

To preserve the anonymity of entries, please do not include your name within the document or the file name.

4. Submissions will be accepted until Nov. 15, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

5. Finalists will be required to complete a formal application to Interlochen Arts Academy by Jan. 15, 2025 in order to remain eligible. Application fee waivers will be provided.

6. The first-prize scholarship will cover full tuition to attend Interlochen Arts Academy. All applicants will be considered for financial aid.

7. The winner will be notified and other entrants will be informed of their admission decision during the month of March. 

8. If submissions do not meet the standards set by the judges, Interlochen Center for the Arts reserves the right to designate no first prize winner and award no scholarship.

9. Students currently enrolled at Interlochen Arts Academy are ineligible for this contest.

Portfolio submissions for the 2024-25 school year are now closed. Submissions for the 2025-26 school year will open in August 2024.

If you have any questions, email us at brittany.cavallaro@interlochen.org.