In collaboration with Stanford DCI (Distinguished Careers Institute) Writes, Stanford OHS’s Writing and Tutoring Center is announcing the second year of their short story contest. The competition has an intergenerational theme, and cash prizes are given to the first-, second-, and third-place winners.

Last year, three OHS students, Isabel Hogben (‘25), William O’Donnell (‘24), and Jordan Bryant (‘26) won first, second, and third place, respectively. Their stories all focused on a loved grandparent, and each incorporated beautiful language and emotional elements.

Hogben says that her “experiences with [her grandfather] were the big motivator behind [her] story.” Hogben (‘25) lives in her grandpa’s apartment building, which is classified as a NORC or a naturally occurring retirement community. She says, “I get to talk to elderly people all the time, and it’s something that’s in my life a lot.” Because of this, she says “it wasn’t super challenging to write about just because it’s such a part of my day-to-day life and lived experience.”

While Hogben wrote about a lived experience, Bryant drew on an imagined senaerio scenario.

“Honestly, I was a little puzzled when I first read [the prompt] because I felt like there were a lot of different interpretations,” she said. “And so I guess I was just trying to think about my own intergenerational relationships and connections. And one that sort of stands out the most to me is the one with my grandfather, whom I haven’t really encountered much. I did meet him when I was very young, but that was like it. And he passed away. And so I sort of felt compelled, in a way, to write a story, sort of connecting to that, because I feel very connected to him through music, even though again, I’ve never really actually met him.”

O’Donnell also wrote about a grandparent who has passed on. His grandmother was laid to rest in late 2023, at a funeral that O’Donnell said felt surprisingly happy – everyone was surrounded by people who loved them. In his story, he describes the event, reflecting on both it and his feelings in regards to his grandmother’s passing.

Whether your story focuses on something that you’ve directly experienced or the connection you feel to a lost loved one, it’s important that it demonstrates what O’Donnell calls “emotional authenticity.”

Hogben says that the “Canonical advice for writing in general is show, don’t tell.” She adds that “Our lived experiences are already implicitly imbued with meaning, so it’s not like you always have to find a moral of the story, and often you can just draw that out of your life, and I think that’s really powerful.”

Bryant emphasizes the importance of self-exploration: “since [the prompt] doesn’t really give you a strict definition of what that might mean, make your own definition first, and then sort of go from there. Look at your own relationships, look at maybe certain characters and media that have intergenerational relationships, that kind of thing. Really, just draw inspiration from personal experiences and whatever [those] might mean to you.”

The Stanford DCI Writes competition is the perfect opportunity for you to showcase your writing talent.

Bryant says “It felt really good to know that a story that felt very personal and specific to me was able to be shared with other people and they were able to receive it in a way either similar or not similar to me.”

Provide a sentence to assert an idea related to Hogben’s quote.

Hogben adds that there’s often “an implicit mental bias against people who are older or ideas that are older in general, kind of a chronological snobbery.” The intergenerational theme “push[es] people to examine older people and older perspectives as something to learn from,” and helps connect different generations.