Interlochen Arts Academy announces the winner of the 2026 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition
Julia Rosen has been selected to receive a full-tuition scholarship to attend Interlochen Arts Academy as a creative writing major.
Julia Rosen has been named the winner of Interlochen Arts Academy’s 2026 Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition.
As part of winning this prestigious competition, Rosen has received a full-tuition scholarship to attend Interlochen Arts Academy as a student in the Creative Writing Division.
“It means the world to me that I won this scholarship,” Rosen stated. “It is validation that my writing means something, and that I can make a career out of it.”
Established in 1975, Interlochen Arts Academy’s acclaimed creative writing program provides expert instruction for high school writers in a supportive, nurturing environment. The Academy’s dedicated faculty of published authors provide individualized mentorship in a variety of career development topics, including building portfolios, submitting to contests, applying to colleges, and honing performance skills.
For Rosen, attending Arts Academy is a culmination of a life-long dream. “Since I was 9, I knew I wanted to be an author—and this opportunity has been my dream come true,” she said. “[An] arts boarding school seemed to me something almost imaginary, beyond incredible. I am so excited for the Writing House to become my new home, and I can’t wait to make friends!”
Interlochen Director of Creative Writing, Karyna McGlynn said that Rosen was chosen as the 2026 recipient due to her originality, range, and tremendous promise as a writer.
“Julia Rosen’s writing is strange, vivid, funny, and emotionally alive,” McGlynn said. “Whether imagining a sun addicted to gas stations or allowing an apricot to carry the complicated weight of family love and grief, she makes bold associative leaps without losing sight of the human heart beneath them.”
First held in 2000, the Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition has enabled more than a dozen young writers of great promise to attend Interlochen Arts Academy. The competition is made possible by generous grants from the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Foundation.
Applicants are asked to submit writing samples in at least two genres, including fiction, poetry, personal essay or memoir, screenwriting, playwriting, or hybrid genre. Rosen was selected based on the overall strength of her portfolio.
“Writing is something that grounds me, and that gives me an overwhelming sense of purpose,” Rosen stated. “It is a way to track time, the growth of the world, and my own growth as a person.”
Previous recipients of the Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition Scholarship have gone on to earn degrees from Cornell, Yale, and Princeton and have won prestigious writing accolades including the Norman Mailer Award for Fiction, the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize, and Juxtaprose’s Short Fiction Contest.
As Rosen looks ahead to an exciting year at Arts Academy, she hopes to finish work on her second novel, a literary coming-of-age book called Timely. She also hopes to join the list of past recipients who have been published in noted literary publications like Driftwood Press, Black Warrior Review, Kudzu House Quarterly, Broadly, and Entropy, among others.
When asked about why writing is important to Rosen, she replied: “Writing is limitless, and it will be remembered. People still pick up books from centuries ago—if there's one thing that will outlast humanity, it will be writing, and all art. Writing brings people together, and it brings different times together. It is magical.”
Applications are now open for the 2027-28 school year. Prospective students can learn more about the creative writing major here.
