2021 Sokol High School Literary Awards Contest

View/download the 2021 flyer here

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: Sunday, January 31, 2021.

There are two simple steps to enter the contest:

1) Register here.

2) Submit your work.

After you complete and submit the online 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.

About the Sokol Awards

Since 1958, the Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library has sponsored a creative writing contest for high school students in grades nine through twelve.

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 will be 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 the Performance winner.

Recognition of winners

The Sokol committee and panel of judges will make their final selections in the Spring, and winners will be notified in April.

Thanks to our partners at The College at Brockport, winning entries from the last few years can be viewed and downloaded here. 

Over the past six years, winning entries have been downloaded collectively over 1,884 times, from 44 countries!