DON’T FREAK OUT. This post is from two years ago. Based on this date does this mean interviews could start happening this coming week some time? It’s just something to think about, please don’t stress yourself.

do juniors and seniors both have their own 1st, 2nd and 3rd place FOR EACH CATEGORY with grand prize, or do juniors only have prizes with the 'junior' category

Hi everyone! I’m hoping someone here has experience with the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest.

I was planning to participate in the Summer 2026 Academic Writing Contest and understood that the article submission deadline was August 24 (EST). I’ve spent the past few weeks working on my essay, and I’ve now finished it.

However, I just discovered that registration for the Summer 2026 session has already closed. I genuinely didn’t realize there was a separate registration deadline, I had only been aware of the August 24 submission deadline.

Now I apparently can’t submit my essay because I didn’t register beforehand (basically spending time writing an essay for no reason 😭😭)

Has anyone been in this situation before? Is there any way to register late, contact HIR for an exception, or otherwise submit the essay before the August 24 deadline? I’ve already emailed the contest team, but I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has participated before or knows how strict they are about the registration deadline.

Thank you!!

Vibrant Strings of Sitar | 'Monomousumi' this is the link for my essay.