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Full-tuition scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy offered through Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition
Young writers who will be in grades 9-12 during the 2021-22 academic year are invited to apply to Interlochen’s renowned creative writing program by January 14, 2021.
Young writers who will be in grades 9-12 during the 2021-22 academic year are invited to apply to Interlochen’s renowned creative writing program by January 14, 2021.
Young writers around the world are invited to apply to Interlochen Arts Academy’s renowned creative writing program to compete for a full-tuition scholarship funded by the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Foundation.
The Virginia B. Ball Scholarship will cover full tuition to attend the nation’s premier arts boarding school from matriculation through graduation. Last year, more than 170 applicants from six countries and 31 states participated in the prestigious competition.
Interlochen's one-of-a-kind creative writing program provides expert instruction to high school writers in an ideal setting. Students benefit from small class sizes and a faculty of experienced and dedicated teachers who are also professional writers. Faculty provide individualized mentorship to students in building portfolios, submitting to contests, applying to college, and honing performance skills for public reading opportunities throughout the year.
Applicants are asked to submit writing samples by Jan. 14, 2021, in at least two of the following genres: fiction, poetry, spoken word, personal essay/memoir, screenwriting, playwriting, comics, and experimental or unclassifiable writing.
Previous recipients of the Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition Scholarship have gone on to earn degrees from Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and the University of Michigan. They have won or been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Norman Mailer Award for Fiction, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize, Juxtaprose's Short Fiction Contest, Wigleaf's Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions, and the Pushcart Prize. They have published books and have been featured in a variety of publications including Driftwood Press, Black Warrior Review, Kudzu House Quarterly, Broadly, Entropy, and more. Twenty creative writing students at Interlochen have been named Presidential Scholars in the Arts, one of the most prestigious awards for high school graduates.
The scholarship winner will be announced no later than April 1, 2021. To apply to Interlochen Arts Academy and review submission guidelines for the Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Scholarship Competition, visit write.interlochen.org.