SoLit, in partnership with UTC, has named the winners of the 2025 Young Southern Student Writers contest. 320 students from area schools were selected as winners from 3,000 submissions.
Four high school students received the contest’s top honor, the Prevost Awards for Outstanding Poetry and Prose, and will each receive a cash prize:
- Isla Wilson (Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts)
- Sarah Moss (Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts)
- Anna Neal (Signal Mountain High School)
- Helen Chen (Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts)
The award ceremony, presented by EPB and the First Horizon Foundation and sponsored by Publix, will be held Monday, April 28, at UTC’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall at 752 Vine St. The program schedule is as follows: Grades K-3 – 5:00 p.m., Grades 4-6 – 6:15 p.m., and Grades 7-12 – 7:30 p.m.
All contest winners will be presented with a distinction of merit medal, and their work will be published in an electronic booklet. For more information, visit solitchatt.org.
The Young Southern Student Writers literary outreach program was established in 1999 in partnership with UTC. It rewards, challenges, and nurtures Hamilton County public, private, and homeschool students’ writing and reading skills. The program also supports teachers and parents by encouraging their students with the fascination of reading and the importance of writing.
Working with their language arts and creative writing teachers, students submit original works in either prose (fiction/nonfiction) or poetry. The students’ entries are evaluated on creativity, content, and style.
: SoLit has become an essential literary arts hub for Chattanooga. SoLit shares stories that matter, serving adults and children each year through literature festivals, author visits, writing workshops, book clubs, a student writing contest, and outreach to area underserved communities. SoLit is funded by grants from ArtsBuild and the Tennessee Arts Commission.