Sejong Writing Competition

The 2024 Writing Competition - CLOSED

Deadline: February 29, 2024 (11:59pm CDT)


sijo competition | essay competition

Essay category

Focusing on introducing students and young adults to Korean culture and history through literature, our essay category utilizes folk tales and contemporary literature to explore Korean culture, past and present.

Adult division (age 19-30 years): Contestants are to read Kim Bo-young's short story “I'm Waiting for You,” and write an essay in response to the provided adult division prompt.

Senior division (grade 9th - 12th): Contestants are to read Kim Bo-young's short story “I'm Waiting for You,” and write an essay in response to the provided senior division prompt.

Junior division (grade 8th and younger): Contestants are to write an essay in response to one of two provided prompts regarding a folktale of the contestant's choice. Contestants must choose one of the stories listed on our folktales page.

Detail information on "2024 Essay Competition Rules and Information"


Sijo category

The sijo is a traditional three-line Korean poetic form organized technically and thematically by line and syllable count. Using the sijo form, write one poem in English on a topic of your choice.

Adult division (age 19 & older)
Pre-college division (age 18 & younger)

Detail information on "2024 Sijo Competition Rules and Information"

The sijo is a traditional three-line Korean poetic form organized technically and thematically by line and syllable count. Using the sijo form, write one poem in English on a topic of your choice. For examples of sijo, more information, and teaching materials – including teaching guides for sijo, please visit our website.

The goal of our sijo category is to introduce students to a lesser-known style of poetry, the traditional Korean sijo. Read about how to write sijo, or see last year's winning entries.

Registration and applications

Regarding the application, we would like to remind students that they may edit their entries and applications until the competition deadline.

We would like to stress that all personal information is kept strictly confidential and no information is shared with parties outside of the Sejong Cultural Society. Please email any questions or concerns to writing@sejongculturalsociety.org. We welcome and appreciate feedback of any kind.

Mission

The goals of the Sejong Writing Competition are to discover children and young adults talented in writing and to encourage them to learn and write about Korean and its culture. Through this writing competition we hope to increase the awareness and understanding of Korea’s cultural heritage amongst the younger generations growing up in the United States.

Eligibility

This competition is open to all residents of the US and Canada regardless of ethnic background.

Sponsors

The Sejong Writing Competition is supported in part by grants from the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea).

Supporters:

DB Kim Jun Ki Cultural Foundation, Bisco Charitable Foundation, Friends of Pacific Rim Foundation