This year’s edition of The Harbinger Prize comes with changes! The 2026 cycle is designed to strengthen student–teacher collaboration and remove summer‑break pressure from applicants. With a couple of tweaks – to the timing of the prize and the age criteria – we aim to continue to champion young voices in journalism, while offering editorial and educational support to emerging teen writers.
The new timeline is designed to give writers more time to develop and polish their pieces.
We will continue the prompt-based format used previously, providing a set of six curated prompts that frame issues that matter to our teen editors and spark creativity in the fields of politics, tech, science, economics and society. In particular, we want to ensure that this year’s submissions respond to timely, relevant newsworthy topics that click with our audience.
Participants write an essay of 800–1,000 words to one of the six prompts. The panel of judges will choose the strongest submission for each prompt, giving six category winners, plus one overall winner of the Harbinger Prize 2026. All seven winners will be awarded with publication of their essay and a scholarship for journalism internship. The overall winner gets additional mentorship opportunities and a reporting trip with journalists from Harbingers’ Project.
The jury might also decide to give honourable commendations to other deserving candidates (as happened with the 2025 prize), who will be awarded with a three-month internship of weekly tutoring plus publication in Harbingers’ Magazine.
We are also including younger applicants this year. The 2026 competition welcomes students aged 14 to 17, from anywhere in the world. We invite young people who can examine urgent issues through their distinct viewpoints, helping to deepen our collective understanding of the world.
Key dates and procedure
- Competition announcement: 27 April 2026 ✅
- Prompts and selection criteria announcement: 4 May 2026 ✅
- Submission opens: 1 September 2026
- Submission deadline: 30 November 2026
- Shortlist announcement: 20 December 2026
- Interviews: 11–25 January 2027
- Winners announcement: 14 February 2027
Awards
- Magazine participation: Each of the seven winners will join the Harbingers’ Magazine project, engaging directly in content creation and editorial decisions.
- Tutoring and courses: Each of the seven winners will receive one hour of weekly tutoring for a year, allowing them to complete the Harbingers’ Contributors’ Programme and Writers’ Programme.
- The Harbinger Prize: One exceptional talent will be awarded a bespoke reporting trip, mentored by two instructors from the Harbingers’ Project.
Last year’s winner, Stephanie Kwok, won a post in our summer newsroom programme dedicated to reporting about genocide that will take her from Berlin, through Warsaw, Krakow and Auschwitz to Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Want to participate?
The Harbinger Prize 2026 competition is inviting submissions across six editorial prompts to find young voices that combine local knowledge, original perspective and strong reporting.
🗳️ For the people, by the people 👥
Young people are now more active members of the democratic system. We have seen an increased youth turnout in the EU Parliament elections as well as higher youth engagement in Mexico’s 2024 midterms. At Harbingers’, we are reporting on how younger politicians are winning spaces, the key role of Gen Z in Nepali politics, and more. Without doubt, there is a conversation to have about what motivates (or silences) first‑time voters and community organisers.
We want you to tell us how young people in your community/country engage with politics, civic action or voting. What drives participation – or apathy – and how could engagement be improved?
🚀Evolving careers 💼
Your generation is reshaping the future of work worldwide. Remote and hybrid jobs, freelancing platforms and automation are decoupling careers from offices. At Harbingers’, we have also observed a rapid demand for AI skills. All of this is evident across articles about office resistance and repurposing vacant spaces, women in tech and changing attitudes to work.
If this topic interests you, we’d like to know your thoughts on how your generation views work, careers and entrepreneurship. Or, to go even further, what skills should schools teach to prepare you for the future?
🤖 Us against the machine 🔒
Digital life is being reshaped as governments and companies clash over regulation and innovation. At Harbingers’, we’ve seen more surveillance and data‑sharing justified by security needs, but this is eroding privacy – especially for marginalised communities. Efforts to counter AI‑generated deepfakes and misinformation raise free‑speech dilemmas, while new limits on ad targeting and algorithm rules change how companies profile users and increase commercial pressure on young people.
The idea of this prompt is for you to investigate an ethical dilemma – privacy, surveillance, algorithm bias are possible options – caused by a digital tool or platform. How should users, companies or policymakers respond?
You could also examine how cyberattacks, drones, AI-enabled systems or surveillance are changing warfare and conflict risk. What ethical, legal or safety measures should governments, companies and citizens demand to prevent escalation?
🌐 Shaking the global order ⚖️
At Davos 2026, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney summed up the changing world order. He cautioned that weaker global institutions and short‑term politics increase financial, climate and security risks. Most global leaders want to rebuild trusted economic partnerships and more resilient supply chains, rather than return to unfettered globalisation.
That message is timely because some traditional alliances – for example, US-Canada-Mexico and US-EU – now appear more conditional and fragile, so clearer rules and renewed cooperation are important to manage a transition to possible new alliances, among them and with other groups such as BRICS+.
In responding to this prompt, you could describe how shifting great‑power relations, new alliances or rising powers are reshaping geopolitics and what those changes mean for your country, community and generation’s future.
🛍️ Trend-setting or trend-breaking? 🔥
One of last year’s winners, Mutaz Sameh, recently wrote a piece for Harbingers’ exploring what Labubu’s popularity reveals about modern consumer culture. At time of writing, the NeeDoh brand of squishy toys is sold out worldwide because they have become collector’s items. We have also reported on the environmental consequences of trendy water bottles and how nostalgia marketing is influencing the new generation.
There are many ways you can go about this prompt. You could explore how fast-changing tastes, social media culture, influencer marketing and drop culture shape what young people buy, and why. You might consider how status, identity, sustainability claims or affordability influence consumption decisions in your community.
Does social media-driven scarcity (limited releases, hype) pressure young buyers? How do second‑hand markets, DIY culture or ethical consumption push back? You can use specific examples, interviews or local data to show what these trends reveal about values, inequality and creative expression among your generation.
🌪️ Shockproof societies 🏘️
The climate has changed and we need to adapt. At Harbingers’, we have a dedicated section to report on the climate crisis in different parts of the world. Our writers have opened conversations about wildlife in Afghanistan, geoengineering and the use of fake snow in the Winter Olympics, to name a few topics. They have also reported an increase in catastrophic weather events such as Cyclone Ditwah in Sri Lanka and flooding in Spain.
We would like you to consider how recent climate events (heatwaves, floods, droughts, wildfires) are affecting your community/country’s safety, economy and social fabric. How are people adapting, which groups are most vulnerable, and what local or policy responses are needed to build better resilience?
Selection criteria
Harbingers’ Project will accept entries from young writers across the world. Submissions should be a single feature or reported essay responding to one of the six prompts. Submissions will be checked for plagiarism and conflicts of interest.
Open to students in full‑time, pre‑university education who have completed UK Year 10 (or equivalent); typical entrant age is 14–17. If you are unsure about eligibility, email kimberly@hrbproject.org with details and allow up to five working days for a reply.
Submissions must be original, single-author pieces in English and no longer than 1,000 words. Each entrant may submit only one entry. The competition is free to enter.
Members of Harbingers’ Magazine Editorial Board and students enrolled with Harbingers’ Project are ineligible.
Submission checks and integrity
All entries will be screened for prompt relevance, originality and journalistic standards (accuracy, sourcing, ethics) during an editorial first read; pieces that fail to meet basic standards will be removed from consideration.
Submitted texts undergo plagiarism checks. Any attempt to present another person’s work as your own may be reported to interested institutions.
Once submitted, entries are blinded: judges assess works without access to author identities. Personal data is securely stored and may be amended or deleted on request in line with applicable data protection rules.
Selection process
- Editorial staff perform an initial assessment for eligibility, prompt fit and basic quality. Qualified submissions proceed to review by a diverse editorial panel.
- Scoring system for written submissions: seven criteria (relevance; creativity; coherence; depth; sourcing; quality; connection) are each scored up to 20 points (total possible = 140). Reviewers select one of four performance levels for each criterion and add brief comments to justify scores.
- Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a 15‑minute interview (Google Meet). The interview adds up to 20 extra points across four criteria (engagement and presence; clarity of thought; depth of understanding; motivation and fit). Interview scores and notes are used to inform final decisions and to break ties where needed.
- The judging panel (which may include announced special guests) meets to review scores, discuss editorial fit and diversity of perspectives, and select winners. Where needed, tie‑break rules will be applied to ensure fairness.
For more information about our selection criteria’s points system, please check out our terms and conditions.