YWP’s hub of inspiration: All our challenges are here!
Challenges
Weekly
Visual Art
Deadline
Rainbow
Use any medium to depict your own version of a rainbow over a bucolic landscape. Don’t be afraid to mismatch the style of the terrain and the style of the rainbow to allow the latter to pop!
Writing
Deadline
Studio
Your parents have given you carte blanche to set up a studio space in your attic – a place just for your hobbies and creative endeavors. How do you decorate it, and what do you engage in when you're in the space?
Writing
Deadline
SM
Write a short op-ed or personal essay about social media and its impact on young people’s lives.
Great Artists
Visual Art
Tomokazu Matsuyama
Tomokazu Matsuyama combines Eastern and Western art history, pop culture, graffiti, and more to create his magical, mystical paintings and sculptures.
Visual Art
Bunny Harvey
Walks in rural Vermont helped inspire these dreamy abstract landscape paintings.
Visual Art
Ted Walsh
Recipe for a striking painting? Limited color palette, a spare style, and the gorgeous play of light and shadow.
Great Writers
Writing
Pablo Neruda
This Chilean poet, diplomat, senator began publishing under a pen name because his father discouraged him from writing poetry. Neruda went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Writing
Toni Morrison
In Black History Month, we honor Toni Morrison, the first Black woman to be awarded the Nobel laureate in literature, gained worldwide acclaim for her unvarnished exploration of Black identity in America. Have you read her work?
Writing
Naomi Shihab Nye
"Before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things," writes poet Naomi Shihab Nye.
Online Workshops
Visual Art
Photo Workshop: The Rule of Thirds
A foundational principle of photography and other visual arts is the rule of thirds. It helps create balanced and visually engaging compositions. Join YWP Alumni Advisor Kevin Huang for this online workshop.
Writing
Wondrous Writers: Editing - Polishing your Writing
This workshop explores key elements of editing that will make your story stronger.
Writing
Writing Workshop: Free Verse Poetry
Free verse is freeing! You can write any way you like, break lines wherever you decide, and end a poem whenever you want.
Contests
Visual Art
Deadline
Climate and Our Earth - Visual Art
Create art that explores the many impacts of the climate crisis and celebrates the wonders and beauty of Earth. Find inspiration in YWP Alumni Advisor Sam Aikman's series of visual art prompts.
Writing
Deadline
Climate and Our Earth - Writing
The Earth is in crisis. Dig deep, YWP, and write about it with YWP Alumni Advisor Sam Aikman. Find "both the heavy and the hopeful, the worried and the appreciative, the challenged and the uplifted ... to create!"
Opinion & Commentary
Writing
Leadership on the Left
Resistance to 'crisis:' Sen. Cory Booker spoke out against the Trump administration at a marathon speech of more than 25 hours on the Senate floor. This follows the "Fight Oligarchy" tour of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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Writing
Resistance
Resistance is bubbling up in the first weeks of the Trump administration. What are you seeing and thinking?
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Writing
Hope & Resilience
Poetry steps in where uncertainty and chaos take root. Poetry lifts us up and moves us forward with determination. Explore these poems of hope and resilience. If you are inspired, share your own.
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