By Cindy Adams

For Will, a classroom writing assignment usually triggered one of two responses; he acted out or shut down. Either way, his intent was to avoid a task he found threatening. That is until his essay was selected in a national writing contest, sponsored by Young Writers, and he became a published author. That changed everything.

Will was a sophomore at Wytheville Minnick School when his essay was selected and published. On the first day of his junior year, he was already asking if they were going to participate in the writing contest again. And he was eager to encourage and help his more hesitant classmates.

"I wasn’t published the first time I tried," he tells them. "But let me show you what I’ve learned."

English teacher Amanda Funkhouser says writing is a sore spot for most of her students. It's one of the reasons she is a proponent of the Young Writers Contest. She displays the books from previous years' contests in the center of her classroom as a visual of student successes. She hopes this serves as both a source of pride and motivation. It's hard to deny the appeal of having your work published.

The theme of the contest for 2026, Will's senior year, is Stranger Sagas. Participants are invited to write any kind of story about something that is not quite right and have to include numbers. It must be 100 words, no more and no less, which forces the students to pay close attention to editing and asking themselves, "could I phrase this sentence differently?"

Aiden, another Minnick student who once detested writing, is now a published writer like Will. Since then, the difference in his approach to the written word is astounding. When he starts a writing assignment, he dedicates every spare minute he has to it. Even in other classes, he finds time to pull out his writing and work on it. He loves the creative aspect of it.

"We all need wins in our life," Amanda says. "A lot of these students are not used to having their work chosen. It really matters to them."

Aiden and Will are two of 16 Minnick students whose stories will be in the 2026 Young Writers book. Every single submission was selected – a first for the school. It’s also the first time Minnick’s middle-schoolers took part. Stranger Sagas will be published in March. The book's content are essays, but it holds so much more. Behind each story are students who have overcome significant hurdles to be included. It’s a book of beginnings.

For Will, he is now working on an advanced diploma, another first for Minnick Schools. An advanced diploma requires extensive writing and refined skills. But Will is not deterred. He is already a published author. He's got this!