Scholastic Art & Writing Awards alumni in the news in 2014

Question: What do Andy Warhol, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Zac Posen all have in common?

Answer: They all won Scholastic Art & Writing Awards when they were in their teens!

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have a unique legacy of being the first to acknowledge the outstanding creative talent of some of our nation’s most exceptional visionaries. For over 90 years, the Awards have provided students—including famous names such as Warhol, King and Posen—with exhibition and publication opportunities, as well as access to millions of dollars in scholarships.

Year after year, students who win Awards go on to become leaders in their fields, continuously pushing boundaries and paving their own paths to success. Awards alumni have gone on to become celebrated scientists, authors, painters, poets and even fashion designers. The list goes on and on! To see some of this amazing up-and-coming talent, check out the 2014 Portfolio Gold Medalists in art and writing.

Looking over the past year, several Scholastic Art & Writing Awards alumni made huge splashes across national (and even international) news. Whether they were producing acclaimed films, selling iconic paintings, publishing new books or winning international awards, these notable alumni all had big things happening in 2014.

In case you missed their headlines throughout the year, here’s our select list of Scholastic Art & Writing Awards alumni in the news in 2014:

Andy Warhol, 1945

Iconic pop artist Andy Warhol won a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards when he was 17 for an original painting. Over 60 years later, on November 12, Christie’s auction house in New York held the largest art auction in history. At the auction, Warhol’s “Triple Elvis (Ferus Type)” portrait of Elvis sold for an outstanding $81.9 million, while his piece “Four Marlons” sold for $69.6 million—exceeding the estimates of Christie’s experts.

Kay WalkingStick, 1947

“The memory of winning a Scholastic Art & Writing Award as a teenager is one I have drawn upon throughout my career as an artist,” remembers renowned artist Kay WalkingStick. This Scholastic Art & Writing Award winner not only received the 2014 Alumni Achievement Award at the National Ceremony at Carnegie Hall this year, but she also announced a career retrospective at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which will open in 2015.

Joyce Carol Oates, 1956

During her senior year of high school, this Pulitzer Prize nominee Joyce Carol Oates won a Scholastic Art & Writing Award for her short story submission, “A Dawn You’ll Never See.” In September 2014, Oates released her latest book, “Lovely, Dark, Deep,’’ and in November, she retired from the Princeton University Creative Writing Program after 36 years of teaching. Congratulations Joyce Carol Oates!

Peter S. Beagle, 1955

In 1968, this Scholastic Art & Writing Award winner wrote The Last Unicorn, a charming novel about one unicorn’s quest of to find out what happened to all of the other unicorns. This September, it was announced that Beagle’s novel will soon make an appearance on Broadway in a musical starring Josh Duhamel and Fergie. Be on the lookout for this one-of-a-kind performance!

Stephen King, 1965

Big things are on the horizon for author and Scholastic Award alumni Stephen King! It was recently announced that Warner Bros. will transform King’s epic novel The Stand into a blockbuster hit starring Matthew McConaughey. Before he became the master of horror novels, King was named as a Fourth Award winner in 1965 for a short story he submitted to the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Richard Linklater, 1978

Did you know that one of the best films of 2014 was directed by a Scholastic Award alumnus? Filmmaker Richard Linklater released the groundbreaking coming-of-age drama “Boyhood” in July, featuring the same cast filmed over a 12 year span. Linklater’s love of storytelling goes all the way back to his days at Huntsville High School, where he won Honorable Mention for a short-short story in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards.

Zac Posen, 1999

2014 was a productive year for designer Zac Posen. In February, he announced the debut of his Truly Zac Posen line, exclusively at David's Bridal. Later in the year, Posen introduced his upcoming fine jewelry collection, in partnership with Fabrikant-Tara International. Posen won Scholastic Art & Writing Awards for both Textile Design and Personal Essay in 1998 and he has been rising in the ranks of the fashion world ever since.

Timothy Hyunsoo Lee, 2006

This is one Scholastic Award alumnus to definitely keep an eye on. After winning numerous Scholastic Art & Writing Awards from 2006-2008, Timothy Lee was selected in 2014 as the winner of the International Emerging Artist Award, based in Dubai! In addition to having his work exhibited in the United Arab Emirates, Lee’s art was also featured in a solo exhibition at Sabrina Amrani Gallery, in Madrid, Spain in October. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for this inspiring artist!  

Do you know any creative teen artists or writers in grades 7–12? Be sure to tell them about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards! More information about applying to the Awards is available online at http://www.artandwriting.org/the-awards/how-to-enter.