The WE READ Youth Voices Writing Contest will return for its fourth year, accepting submissions from May 1 to June 30. Kids in the Madison area, ages 18 and under, will have the opportunity to get published and win up to $500 in cash prizes, with support from the Madison Public Library Foundation.
Hosted by the library in partnership with Forward Madison FC and the Wisconsin Book Festival, this annual contest accepts submissions of short stories, songs, poems, comics, graphic novels, and more in English, Spanish, Hmong, and other languages.
This year’s Writing Contest Youth Ambassador is 19-year-old UW–Madison student and Madison Youth Poet Laureate Justin Festge Russell. Throughout the contest, Festge Russell will encourage youth to submit their work, serve as a judge, and write the foreword for the WE READ Youth Voices Anthology in the fall. Festge Russell also selected the contest’s theme: Roots.
“Whether your story is about going back to your roots to examine your personal history and revisit moments that were worth holding on to, exploring moments of conflict where you had to get to the root of the issue, or planting new ideas and growing together from the roots up, we want to hear them!” said Festge Russell.
A kickoff event for the contest will take place at the Forward Madison FC home game on Saturday, April 26 at Breese Stevens Field. The Dream Bus will be in attendance to help people sign up for library cards, give away free writer’s notebooks, and hand out WE READ Youth Voices bookmarks with the 2025 prompts and contest theme.
The WE READ program is funded by Madison Public Library Foundation, Steve Stricker American Family Insurance Foundation, Friends of the Madison Public Library, Roots & Wings Foundation, and Jane Doughty & David Wood. As a supporter of WE READ, the foundation is proud to support an effort that encourages literary creativity among Madison youth. Learn more about the contest at the WE READ Youth Voices webpage.