Belkhyr, who won four Gold Medals in 2013 and another two last year, now edits Winter Tangerine, a literary publication that she founded in 2013 that features the work of teens alongside that of more-established writers.“If you win, then you talk to the other winners, congratulating and praising them. If you lose, then you read through your submission, noting mistakes that weren't there five minutes before, wondering where you went wrong,” she adds. “You tell yourself, ‘It doesn't really matter. I'll survive.’ But a squeaky voice in the back of your head is saying, ‘So-and-so won. They’re obviously way better than you. Why are you even trying?’”

Scholastic Art & Writing is one of several awards programs that tempt budding teenage writers into the laps of college recruiters.

The Miami-based YoungArts, whose notable writing grads include The New York Times bestseller Sam Lipsyte, typically receives 11,000 entries annually. Lower-tier winners do the same later on in either Miami, New York, or Los Angeles, while finalists gather in January in Miami for a week of classes with masters in the field and performances. Upon finishing their week in Miami, every finalist receives a cash prize, earmarked for education, ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Based on assessments from their instructors, some of them are then nominated for the U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts program, for which only 20 students are selected each year.

Colleges such as Princeton and Kenyon, along with arts-focused schools—from Santa Fe University of Art & Design to Columbia College of Chicago—also offer high-school competitions with currency and credit at stake. The Poetry Society of America and the Norman Mailer Center likewise sponsor student awards. Many of these invite the prizewinners to read at public ceremonies, while a few even fly in and host out-of-state honorees or gift them with scholarships to summer writing seminars.

Such riches are beyond tempting to young authors who will revise work to the point that they—to paraphrase Raymond Chandler—throw up on their computers every day and clean them up every night.

Previously, just a select few, often identified by AP English teachers, would enter these competitions, as would a handful of secret bedroom scribblers. But organizers say teens have been showing much greater interest in the past several years—and the quality of competition is on the rise. That’s in part because of recruitment. YoungArts, for instance retains personnel to travel around the country and make presentations in high schools.

The increase in literary rank and file also means that more student writers are losing than ever before. In the Scholastic competition, to even reach national adjudication, a piece must first be handed a Gold Key from regional affiliates. This past year, only 17,000 of the more than 300,000 pieces of art and writing went on to nationals, according to McEnerney. Of those finalists, just 2,200 received medals. In other words—or, more appropriately, numbers—less than 1 percent of the original 300,000-plus took top accolades.