The Golden Pen Short Essay Contest
Calling all readers and writers!!! A $200 Cash Prize plus the illustrious Golden Pen will be awarded to the winner of our new Golden Pen Short Essay Contest. Free Entry. Deadline is December 31st, 2025. All Middle School and High School Students are eligible. Read below for details and to submit your essay. And… Good Luck!
We are being attacked by the forces of darkness. A great shadow has been creeping upon our world. It is no ordinary shadow: it is strangely bright, not dark, and it shrouds not our vision, but our minds. It is the shadow cast by technology, and it is making it harder and harder to read. Bite-sized videos steal our attention; scrolling seizes our senses! What is left by the wayside, forgotten like an old toy from a childhood some may never have even seen? Reading great books – books that change our lives, books that form a syntax for our minds and an underlying rhythm for our hearts. Writing that once used to deeply connect us now stands like some archaic broken bridge to the past, and future. And we stand each isolated, unable to connect with those who used to inspire us, to understand us… Is all lost? Will literature die, and with it those who lived infused by the power of great books – overshadowed by the bright lights of tablets and tiktok?
Not on our watch! Not while we can still think, and remember. Not while we can still write. But we can’t do it all ourselves. We turn to you to help us. Who will defeat this behemoth with the right word, and the sentence that cuts like a scimitar? The pen is mightier than the sword, but is it mightier than the eerie blue-light of technology?
We see a breach in the wall. Will you help us rush it? It is this: without having had books in their lives, so many truly don’t understand the impact a great book, or even just the right book at the right time, can have. Tell us, in two pages or less the impact a great book had on you. Let us drink it in. Tell us the story of who you were before you picked up the book, why you read it, what your experience was reading the book, and the changes that ensued.
Let us feel the power of literature in your words. Perhaps you will extract the golden pen from its stone, or perhaps you will pull a tear from our hearts. Perhaps you will not, but your words will stand simply as a testament to the world that once was and to what can be. Either way, we will be better for it.
The essay is due December 31st, 2025 and to be submitted here. Essays will be judged for their emotional power and intellectual interest, to which ends of course a well-crafted phrase can always help. Maximum length is 2 pages.
The essay context will be judged by the team at Central Park Tutors, including:
Michael Wallach: Michael has been involved in both writing and teaching for more than 25 years. He is the screenwriter of Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson’s film “The Bay,” is the author of the children’s educational book “Puzzles for Young Children,” and co-author of the teenage conflict resolution book “Teaching Peace.” He is also the founder and director of Central Park Tutors.
Susana Kraglievich: Susana is a former librarian, an Orton-Gillingham trained dyslexia specialist, an avid reader, and a co-founder of Central Park Tutors.
Lisa Borten: Lisa is the Middle School Librarian at The Spence School, where her focus is developing enthusiastic and voracious young readers. She has a particular love for finding engaging history and science books. She has her MA in Library Science and her BA in English from Brandeis, and has been a librarian at the Ramaz School as well as The School at Columbia University.
Tom Wisdom: Tom hols a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience. As an academic, Tom has published more than fifteen articles on the role of social-learning and the impact of culture and community on education. Tom has been teaching and tutoring for the past ten years and has taught nearly everything high school related – from the GED to the ACT, the SAT, AP Physics, AP Lit, you name it. He has also worked with many many students with anxiety, learning differences or who just need a calm, upbeat steady teacher who is eager to listen. He has been around the world twice, and has lived in 12 states and 3 countries.
Adriana Kunestar: Adriana is a reading teacher at The Birch Wathen Lennox School. She holds an MA in Education and a degree in Studio Art. She adores helping students find their love and passion for the arts in whatever way suits them.
Gilly Nadel: Gilly earned her Juris Doctorate in Law at Harvard Law School. She went on to work at two prestigious NYC law firms, submitting amicus curiae briefs for the Supreme Court of The United States and focusing her practice in Education Law. Gilly then decided to leave the law and become do what she really loves: working with children. She earned her MA in Education from Bank Street Teachers College and became a school teacher. She has never been happier.
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For those looking for help with academics, we believe there is no one better to turn to than true lovers of literature, science and math themselves. To that end, we have assembled an extraordinary team of tutors who are here to help students of all ages. You can learn more about us by visiting our home page here. We have been tutoring NYC students for more than twenty years, and we believe we are the very best tutoring company in NYC for academic help, test-prep, dyslexia, ADHD, and more. Do reach out. We would love to hear from you.