Competitions · Humanities and writing · NYT Personal Narrative Contest
The New York Times Personal Narrative Contest.
A hundred words. One true story from your own life. It is the shortest writing competition on this site and, for a lot of students, the hardest.
What it asks for
A hundred words, and they must be true.
The Times has run a personal narrative column for years, covering everything from love and family to school, disability, animals and anxiety. This contest asks students to write one of those.
A tiny memoir
One meaningful moment or event from your own life, told in your own voice, in whatever style you like. There is no set theme.
In a hundred words or fewer
The title does not count toward the limit. A hundred words is about five sentences - roughly the length of this paragraph and the last one together.
Which is the whole difficulty
There is no room for setting up, explaining, or reflecting afterwards. The story has to start somewhere already interesting and stop as soon as it has landed.
True, and yours
It is a memoir contest. The event has to be something that actually happened to the writer.
At a glance
The essentials.
Free, individual, and submitted online, like everything in the Times contest series. The originality requirement here is stricter than most.
- Who can enter
- Students aged 13 to 19, with a parent or guardian’s permission. The series introduction gives 11 to 19 - confirm for a younger student
- Cost
- Free
- Length
- 100 words or fewer, excluding the title
- Entries
- One per student
- Originality
- Unpublished, and written for this contest. It must not already have appeared anywhere - including a school newspaper - or have been entered in another competition
- Artist’s statement
- Required. A short description of your creative process, submitted with the entry
- What the statement is for
- The Times states that artist’s statements are not used to select finalists - they help the organisers design and improve the contest
- When
- Late October to early December
- Deadline
- Late evening US Pacific time on the closing date
- Where it sits
- One of seven contests the Times runs across the year
The Times’ own guidance
How they say to write a hundred-word story.
The organisers publish a method, and its final step is the one that matters most.
Make every word earn its place
The Times’ own advice for the last stage of editing: use sound, punctuation, sentence length and repetition so that every word does work.
And do not waste the title
The title is free - it does not count toward the hundred words. That makes it the cheapest place in the piece to do something.
Show, using detail
The published criteria favour narratives that use vivid detail and put images in front of the reader, rather than telling them what to feel.
And avoid the obvious phrase
Essays that avoid cliché are explicitly favoured. At a hundred words, one tired phrase is one per cent of the piece.
Why it is worth doing
It is the same muscle as a university essay.
This is the honest case for the contest, and it applies whether or not a student places.
The criteria overlap with application essays
A specific personal moment, told in the student’s own voice, with detail rather than summary. That is what a university personal statement asks for.
So the timing works either way
A student in an application year can enter while drafting essays. A younger student can build the skill before it matters.
It is free and it takes an evening
A hundred words costs nothing to attempt. The revision is where the time goes, and the revision is the useful part.
And winners are published
Selected work appears on the New York Times site under the student’s name.
Preparation
How Hanlin prepares an entry.
Almost all the work is choosing the moment and then cutting.
Choosing small
A hundred words cannot hold a year, a relationship or a move to another country. It can hold one afternoon, one conversation, one object. Students choose too large almost every time.
Drafting at four hundred, then cutting to a hundred
Writing short first produces something thin. Writing long and cutting three quarters is what produces a hundred words worth reading.
Reading past winners
They are published and there are dozens of them. Twenty minutes with them teaches more about the form than any amount of advice.
And keeping it unpublished
It must not have appeared anywhere, including a school newspaper, and must not have been entered elsewhere. Write it for this.
Why Hanlin
Preparation for NYT Personal Narrative Contest at Hanlin is taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
Programme formats
Five ways this is taught.
Group size is the whole difference between these. It decides how much of the tutor's attention a student gets and how far the course can bend to them, so it is worth choosing rather than accepting.
| Format | Group size | What it suits |
|---|---|---|
| One-to-one | One student | Content, pace and emphasis set by what this student actually needs rather than by a syllabus. The only format that can be rebuilt mid-course. |
| Small group | Three to eight | Opens at three. Frequent discussion, and the tutor can slow down or move on according to what the group has absorbed. Most students chasing a higher award are taught in this one. |
| Class | Eight to twelve | Taught by the subject lead or a medal coach. Less back-and-forth, so it suits a student who will say when something is unclear. |
| Large class | Ten to twenty | For students in the middle of the placement range, and a way to try a competition before committing. Students often move to a small group or to one-to-one afterwards. |
| Past-paper class | No cap | Past papers worked through in sequence in the weeks before the sitting. Free to students already enrolled. |
Course length for NYT Personal Narrative Contest is set after a placement paper. The gap between where a student is and what the paper asks for is what the course has to close, and that gap is not the same for two students in the same year group.
How it runs
Six steps, four people on your side.
The same process for every student, so that nothing depends on one tutor remembering to do it.
Step 1Pre-course assessment
A placement paper before anything is booked, so the course tier is chosen on evidence rather than on a year group.
Step 2Tutor matching
A subject tutor is matched to the result, and their full background is provided before you agree to it.
Step 3Plan and group
A study group opens with four people on one student: the tutor, a planner, a supervisor and an academic manager.
Step 4Scheduled teaching
The teaching office sets the timetable around the competition date and school term, and teaching begins.
Step 5After-class reports
What was covered, and how the student handled it, reported after every lesson.
Step 6Homework follow-up
The teaching assistant and the form teacher both check that homework is done, which is where most preparation quietly fails.
Free resource pack
Past questions and writing pack
The same material our own NYT Personal Narrative Contest students work from. Scan the code, say what you need, and an advisor sends it.
Tell an advisor which competition and year group, and the material comes back the same day. Free, and you do not have to enrol in anything. If we do not already hold what you need, we will go and find it.
- PDFEvery past question the competition has set
- PDFShortlisted and published essays, to calibrate the standard
- PDFStructure, referencing and word-count guide
- PDFEntry checklist and the dates for the current cycle
Teaching team
Who would teach it.
Three of the twenty-two tutors on the published Hanlin roster - the ones whose subject this is.
Lu
Master's in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a double major in psychology and philosophy at Mount Holyoke. Cross-cultural teaching experience across China and the US, with research work in child and adolescent development, cognition, and international students' identity.
Yang
Educated at American Heritage School, then English literature and philosophy at the University of British Columbia and a master's in language education at Toronto. Eleven years in North America, with a close working knowledge of the international curricula and overseas admissions.
Zhang
Master's in cognitive science at UC San Diego on full scholarship, after double honours in neurobiology and behaviour and in cognitive science at UC Davis. Ten years overseas, a perfect TOEFL speaking score, and named an outstanding education scholar at UCSD.
Where it is taught
Hanlin learning centres.
Teaching runs from Hanlin's own centres in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and online for students elsewhere.
Talk to an advisor
Everything Hanlin does for NYT Personal Narrative Contest, in one conversation.
Entry, planning, coaching and the past papers. An advisor will tell you which of these a student actually needs, including when the answer is none of them.
Competition entry and planning
Which competitions suit this student, in what order, and by when - then we handle the registration, including the ones that can only be entered through a school or a centre.
Competition coaching
Taught by full-time subject tutors, on a course tier chosen by placement paper rather than by year group.
International curriculum tutoring
IB, AP, A-Level, IGCSE and the US high school curriculum, taught alongside school and timed around the exam calendar.
Competition past papers, free
A large library of past papers, mark schemes and syllabus breakdowns across every competition on this site. No charge and no enrolment.
Scan to add an advisor
Say which competition or course you are asking about. Replies in Chinese or English.
Or call +86 21 6352 6630FAQ
The Personal Narrative Contest, briefly answered.
What students and families ask before entering.
How long can it be?
100 words or fewer. The title is not counted.
Who can enter?
Students aged 13 to 19, with a parent or guardian’s permission. The series introduction gives 11 to 19, so confirm with the Times if the student is younger than 13.
Does it cost anything?
No. Every contest in the Times student series is free.
How many entries can I submit?
One per student.
Does it have to be a true story?
Yes. It is a memoir contest - a true account of a meaningful experience from your own life.
Is there a set theme?
No. There is no required subject or style. The organisers ask only that you use short, concentrated language to describe a meaningful moment or story from your life.
Can I submit something I have written before?
No. The piece must be unpublished and written for this contest - not previously published anywhere, including a school newspaper, and not entered in another competition.
What is the artist’s statement?
A short description of your creative process, submitted alongside the entry. The Times states that these are not used to choose finalists - they help the organisers design and improve the contest.
When does it run?
From late October to early December, closing in the late evening US Pacific time.
What do winners receive?
Publication on the New York Times website under their own name.
Related
The rest of the Times series, and other writing competitions.
What students enter alongside this one.
Personal narrative enquiries
One afternoon, a hundred words.
The hardest part is choosing something small enough, and it builds exactly the skill a university personal essay needs. Tell us what the student wants to write about and an advisor will help find the moment inside it.