Personal Essay Category
The English Department at Western Kentucky University is pleased to announce the 2026-2027 Personal Essay Category for The Barbara Ann Williford Memorial High School Writing Contest. Students should visit the links on the right to complete an application and submit a 33-500-word piece (MLA style; pdf format) based on the prompt below. The English Department will invite finalists, their teachers, and family to campus for a reception and ceremony on March 27, 2027 where they will be recognized.
The winners will receive cash prizes: 1st place - $200; 2nd place - $125; 3rd place - $75 and Teacher's Choice - $100.
Application and Essays are due February 27, 2027.
Surrounded by Signals
Every day, we are surrounded by signals. Some are obvious: text messages, notifications, headlines, alarms, advertisements, announcements. Others are quieter and more difficult to interpret: a pause in a conversation, a change in someone’s tone, a meaningful object, a memory that returns unexpectedly, or a feeling that something is shifting beneath the surface of ordinary life.
Signals help people communicate, connect, warn, persuade, comfort, and understand. At the same time, modern life often feels overcrowded with information, distraction, and noise. It can become difficult to know what deserves our attention, what should be ignored, and what we may already be missing.
Prompt
For this year’s personal essay contest, write a 300 – 500 word essay exploring the theme of “Signal.”
Your essay may focus on a moment, experience, relationship, or realization connected to communication, attention, connection, misunderstanding, silence, identity, technology, memory, or change. You might reflect on a signal you failed to recognize at the time, a message that changed your perspective, an attempt to reach someone across distance or difference, or a moment when you realized that someone was trying to tell you something indirectly.
You might consider questions such as:
- What kinds of signals shape our lives?
- How do we decide what deserves our attention?
- What happens when important signals are ignored, distorted, or misunderstood?
- How has technology changed the way people communicate and connect?
- Can silence itself communicate meaning?
These are not required questions to cover, just suggestions of potential starting points for reflection and exploration. Feel free to go your own way!
Guidelines
Your essay should balance storytelling with insight. Use concrete detail and sensory language to draw the reader into your experience, then step back to consider what that experience means. Avoid turning your essay into a speech or argument; instead, let your thoughts unfold naturally, showing how one moment or idea leads to another. Successful essay writing is personal, anchored in your own lived experience and unique writing voice.
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