We are excited to announce the winners and runners-up of our 2024 One Teen Story Teen Writing Contest! We received nearly 600 entries from teen writers across the globe, and narrowing it down was no easy feat. Each winner will receive $500 and publication in a forthcoming issue of One Teen Story.
Ages 13-15 Winner: “A Piece of Him” by Karli Roth
“Last time I’d played in front of an audience had been at Ryan’s funeral. Last time I’d played Bach’s Aria from the Goldberg Variations in front of others was when Ryan was back for Christmas break, the final time I saw him before the accident.” — “A Piece of Him” by Karli Roth
When she was barely old enough to spell, Karli Roth wrote a dramatic story starring a four-year-old heroine. Why? She was convinced there weren’t enough suspenseful novels with four-year-old main characters. Today, she has taken a lesson from her younger self, and she aims to write stories that resonate deeply with readers. She won second place nationally in the FRA Americanism Essay Contest in 2021, and she enjoys public speaking, theater, and music. As an aspiring novelist, she pens Christian speculative fiction that doesn’t lose its heart in the action. You can join her on this journey at karliroth.com.
Runner-up: “Main-Character Syndrome” by Quentin Lewin
Ages 16-17 Winner: “The Things We Don’t Talk About” by Lily Scheckner
“I tell her the truth: that she just has a bad feeling about my happiness. That she feels it like an itch on her skin, like the jeans that she no longer wears. Screaming the words at her feels like vomiting.” — “The Things We Don’t Talk About” by Lily Scheckner
Lily Scheckner is a high school student and writer residing in Silver Spring, Maryland. She was a finalist for the Montgomery County, MD Youth Poet Laureate and attended Interlochen Arts Camp, where she received a Fine Arts Award for Creative Writing. Her work is published or upcoming in the Malu Zine and the National Poetry Quarterly, where she will be honored as a National Winner for 2023-2024. In her free time, Lily enjoys matcha lattes, oxford commas, and listening to Sufjan Stevens.
Runner-up: “Dear American god, give me your lemons” by Kyo Lee
Ages 18-19 Winner: “Photoelectric” by Elane Kim
“I wanted to tell him, I am trying to stare at the sun here, can’t you see? I am trying to grasp at a moving body, celestial, its incomplete orbit. I am trying to love what I cannot see.” — “Photoelectric” by Elane Kim
Elane Kim is a Korean American writer attending Harvard College. She is the author of Postcards (Bull City Press, 2022). The editor-in-chief of Gaia Lit, she is a 2023 U.S. Presidential Scholar, a 2022 Davidson Fellow in Literature, and the winner of the 2021 Columbia Journal Winter Poetry Contest. Her writing can be found in Poetry, Narrative Magazine, One Teen Story, and more. She is very happy to meet you.
Runner-up: “Friendship, Feigning, Loving, Folly” by Isabel Schumacher
Subscribe to One Story or One Teen Story in print to read the winners’ stories throughout the year. Our next Teen Writing Contest will take place in the fall.
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