KALAMAZOO — The Lee Honors College, in partnership with Western Michigan University’s  Department of English and its Third Coast Writing Project, has created a writing competition for high school students to demonstrate young writers can display extraordinary talent for the craft.

Organizers of the Best Midwestern High School Writing contest aim to draw the exemplary work of young people from across a six-state region. The creative, nonfiction or journalistic writing entries that outshine all others will win young writers cash prizes and publication in the honors college’s literary magazine, The Laureate.

This new competition is the brainchild of Charles and Lynn Zhang, longtime friends of WMU and of the honors college, who pledged financial support to launch what will become an annual program.

“It was inspired by their commitment to writing,” Lee Honors College Dean Nicholas Andreadis says of the Zhangs. “They have enormous respect for WMU’s outstanding creative writing program and are eager for the whole nation to know about it.”

The contest will accept creative, nonfiction and journalistic writing. First-place winners receive $500, while those coming in at second and third place will win $300 and $150, respectively. releases and on the competition website.

The deadline to enter the high school writing competition is Jan. 10, and winners will be announced in March. To learn more about the contest and its requirements, visit wmich.edu/honor/writing.