2026 Writing Championship
From the 516 writing entries received in the 2025-2026 writing competitions, the following finalists’ competition articles qualified them for the Hearst National Writing
Championship, where they competed for additional scholarship awards.
On Sunday May 31, shortly after arriving in San Francisco, the finalists met with their judges – Sue Campbell, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz and Suki Dardarian – for orientation and a review of the assignments. The finalists were asked to write two articles: a news story from an interview with Mr. Frank Bennack, Executive Vice Chairman & Former CEO of the Hearst Corporation which was held via zoom in the Hearst Foundation office, and an article about the following prompt: “Has San Francisco Really Recovered from the Pandemic?”
The judges received the finalists’ articles Wednesday evening. The winners were announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday evening in the Gold Ballroom of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
The first-through-third place winners were awarded scholarships of $10,000, $7,500, and $5,000 respectively. The five finalists earned $1,500 scholarships.
The winners and finalists are featured below.
