The 2025 Writing Competition
Deadline: February 28, 2025 (11:59pm CDT)
Categories
sijo competition | essay competition
Mission
The Sejong Writing Competition aims to introduce young adults to Korean culture through literature and poetry.
Eligibility
This competition is open to all residents of the US and Canada regardless of ethnic background.
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. For examples of sijo, more information, and teaching materials – including teaching guides for sijo, please visit our website. *Only one entry per applicant is permitted. .
Adult division (age 19 & older)
Pre-college division (age 18 & younger)
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.
Essay category
Read the topic story for your division and write an essay of 1000 words or less based on the given prompts.
Adult division (age 19-30 years) : "O. Cuniculi" by Pyn Hye-Young. Senior division (grade 9th - 12th): "Kapitan Ri" by Chon Kwang-yong Junior division (grade 8th and younger): "Ox and Goblin" by Yi Sang.
Guidelines
All entries must be written in English and only one essay and one sijo per applicant are permitted. A full list of guidelines and rules can be found on our website.
Submission Deadline: Feb 28, 2025 11:59pm CDT
Applications and entries must be submitted through our online submission system.
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 sejongculturalsociety@gmail.com. We welcome and appreciate feedback of any kind.
Sponsors
The Sejong Cultural Society acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, DB Kim Jun Ki Foundation, Bisco Foundation, and Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
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