National Young Authors Challenge Returns for Second Edition

Penguin India and Big Red Education launch the second National Young Authors Challenge for students in Grades 5–12.
on Sep 22, 2026

New Delhi: PRHI, in collaboration with the education company Big Red Education, is organizing the second edition of National Young Authors Challenge (NYAC), a writing contest for students in Classes 5 to 12.

The NYAC of 2026 will consist of two groups, namely 5-8 and 9-12, with separate themes for both groups. The top 50 stories in each of the groups will be published through Penguin Random House India, thus providing the chance to 100 young authors to get their stories published. One hundred more selected stories will be published on the Penguin India website.

The participants will also benefit from an 8-hour boot camp on publishing arranged by Penguin authors and editors. The program will teach them storytelling, editing, developing manuscripts, and the entire publishing process.

The first edition attracted more than 1,000 students from 65+ schools and received over 1,200 story submissions from young writers across India.