Aldo Leopold Writing Contest
2026 Leopold Writing ContestESSAY SUBMISSION DEADLINE:
Friday, February 13th, 2026, at midnight. The Leopold Writing Program invites New Mexico students in grades 6-12 to submit original essays for our 2026 Writing Contest.
This year's contest features quotes by two environmental writers: Aldo Leopold, who believed that the idea of community should include humans, plants, animals, and the land, and Joy Harjo, an Indigenous writer, musician, and poet, who writes about humankind's connection to land. Please read the quotations below, and then respond to the essay prompt that follows. “It's possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing.” ― Joy Harjo, The Woman Who Fell from The Sky: Poems "The last word in ignorance is the [person] who says of an animal or plant, 'What good is it?'" ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
|
Each year, the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest invites New Mexico students in Grades 6-12 to submit essays in response to a carefully crafted and thought-provoking prompt inspired by the writings of Aldo Leopold. Encouraged by their teachers, students delve into his philosophies of land stewardship, especially as set forth in A Sand County Almanac, and explore the relevance of Leopold's classic and timeless observations to issues that they experience personally, locally, and globally. Information about the essay topic is published and distributed in the Fall, with a deadline for submission in the Spring. The Writing Contest is divided into three Categories: Grades 6-7, Grades 8-9, and Grades 10-12. A panel of volunteer judges evaluates each essay in these categories for responsiveness to the prompt, eloquence of expression, writing skill and language usage, and connection to Leopold's "land ethic." Judges choose First Place essayists in each of the three categories, as well as Honorable Mentions as merited. Each student winner receives a cash award of up to $500 and certificate. Since its beginning in 2009, over 3,250 students from schools in rural and urban communities around New Mexico have taken part in the annual Aldo Leopold Writing Contest. |
Additional Resources
This year we are sharing additional writing activities and resources that are meant to help students come up with essay ideas. We are also sharing our essay scoring rubric so students can understand how their essays will be judged.
Click below to access additional resources, the scoring rubric, and a lesson plan that can help students come up with ideas for their essays.
Click below to access additional resources, the scoring rubric, and a lesson plan that can help students come up with ideas for their essays.
General Contest Details
ELIGIBILITY
Open to all students enrolled in grades 6-12 in public, private, and home schools in New Mexico.
Open to all students enrolled in grades 6-12 in public, private, and home schools in New Mexico.
CONTEST PARAMETERS
- Students must submit ORIGINAL work.
- Both student and sponsoring teacher must sign the contest entry form affirming that the essay is original and not assisted by AI software. All essays will be run through AI testing software.
- One essay submission per person.
- Essays must be uploaded as a PDF file.
FORMAT AND AWARDS
ESSAY LENGTH by Category
Grades 6-7: 300-500 word essay
Grades 8-9: 400-600 word essay
Grades 10-12: 500-700 word essay
AWARDS
Grades 6-7: 300-500 word essay
Grades 8-9: 400-600 word essay
Grades 10-12: 500-700 word essay
AWARDS
- Cash prizes of up to $500 will be awarded.
- Students will be asked to read their winning essays at an Awards Ceremony in the spring and at an event in the fall.
- We are using submission metrics from last year to inform how many prizes we offer this year. There will be one Winner and two Honorable Mentions in each grade category for the English contest and one overall Winner and two Honorable Mentions for the Spanish contest.
- There are two additional awards:
- The David E. Stuart Humanitarian Award for the most creative Spanish essay
- The Estella B. Leopold Memorial Award for the most creative English essay
THE ALDO LEOPOLD WRITING CONTEST
For 6th – 12th grade students in New Mexico, the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest is an effective and inclusive way to engage the next generation of citizen leaders in an urgent conversation about how to address the changing realities brought about by climate disruption, biodiversity loss, growing demand for fresh water, and other pressing global conservation issues.
It is effective not only because of how many it touches (the student participants, their schools, and their larger communities), but also because it gives voice to the writers with the most moral authority to discuss these issues: the generation most vulnerable to the consequences of inaction. It is inclusive because the essays are judged anonymously based on the character, relevance, and persuasiveness of the content, without regard to the writer’s race, origin, religion, or other factor. The Aldo Leopold Writing Contest is an organic way to diversify an essential conversation for society because it is expansive, wide-reaching, and merit-based.
