Central Library Fall hours 2022 — Mondays & Wednesdays: 9am-8:30pm; Tuesdays & Fridays: 9am-6pm; Thursdays: 11am-6pm.
*OPEN* Saturdays, 10am-5pm; *CLOSED* Sundays
Any Monroe County high school student in grades 9 – 12 can apply.
Entries from public, private, charter schools and Home Schools are welcome!
Entry deadline: Tuesday, January 31, 2023.
After you complete and submit the online registration form, you will be asked to submit your Poetry, Prose, or Performance entry via e-mail in a Word document to Sokol.Contest@libraryweb.org (typed, double spaced, 12-point font). NO name or identifying information should be on the work; just the title.
Submit your work via e-mail in a Word document to Sokol.Contest@libraryweb.org (typed, double spaced, 12-point font). NO name or identifying information should be on the work; just the title.
Submit only one entry per category (Poetry, Prose, or Performance). A performance entry may also be entered as either a poetry or a prose entry in written form. If a student chooses to submit a performance entry in another category, the performance piece must be submitted separately to also receive consideration in that other category.
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About the Sokol Awards
Since 1958, the Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library has sponsored a creative writing contest for Monroe County high school students in grades nine through twelve.
Entries from public, private, charter schools and Home Schools are welcome!
In 1985, Mr. & Mrs. Eli and Mildred Sokol established an endowment, through the Community Foundation, that makes it possible for us to award monetary prizes to the winners and honoraria to the judges. We are pleased to offer a special performance prize in addition to the traditional prose and poetry prizes. Through the Sokols’ foresight and generosity, the Friends & Foundation of RPL will be able to encourage young writers for generations to come.
Cash Prizes
$1,500 in cash prizes are awarded: $300 for first prize (Prose and Poetry); $200 for second prize (Prose and Poetry); $100 for third prize (Prose and Poetry); and one $300 prize for Performance. If a group wins the performance prize, the prize is equally divided by the number of people in the group.
Thanks to our partners at The College at Brockport, the complete collection of Sokol award winning entries (2015 through 2022) can be viewed and downloaded here.
Since 2015, winning entries have been downloaded collectively more than 2,000 times, from at least 44 countries!
The Sokol committee and panel of judges will make their final selections in the Spring and notify the winners.
Details for the 2023 Sokol Awards Ceremony will be posted and sent to winners in the Spring as well.
