2026 YEC open for submissions

Submissions are due Oct. 1 

The 2026 Yearbook Excellence Contest is open for entries through the start of October. The cost for each entry is $8. High schools will be divided by size — Class A for 1,000 or more students in grades 9-12, and Class B for 999 or fewer students in grades 9-12. Middle schools are in one “class” category, so advisers do not need to select a class.

The categories vary widely — including many forms of photography, writing and design. There are also submission opportunities for beginning staff members and middle school yearbooks. New this year is the Social media journalist category, designed to recognize excellence in use of social media.

YEC is an all-digital contest. Entries (PDFs of pages and/or JPGs of photos) will be stored online, and publications shared the URLs of those spreads, images or folders containing multiple files on the entry form. Because all work must be in published form, we do not accept Google docs. You may submit PDFs that are uploaded to Google Drive, but not unpublished work written in a Google Doc.

Below is a complete list of the categories for the 2026 Contest.

How to Enter

1. Open this view-only Google spreadsheet. Make a copy of it that you may edit.
2. Rename it “School_YEC2026.” For example, Shawnee Mission North may call it “SMN_YEC2026,” while Richland will simply call it “Richland_YEC2026.”
3. Replace the text “School Name,” “Adviser Name,” “School Address” and “Adviser Email” with the appropriate information. No entry is complete without all four pieces of information. Please make sure all information is spelled correctly.
4. Use the dropdown menu in cell B6 to choose your class, based on grades 9-12 enrollment.
5. Use the dropdown menu in cell F6 to choose your payment method. The cells in column E will calculate the total. If you intend to pay with a credit card please use this form. If you would like to use a purchase order or check, please use this form. (If this is the only reason you are using the online form, there’s no need to pay for shipping.) You will receive an invoice when you place the order.
6. Starting with Line 8, in Column A, type in the student or students’ name(s) for the entry. For entries with more than five students, please use “Staff.”
7. In Column B, use the dropdown menu to choose the category for each entry.
8. In Column C, paste in the URL of the file or folder of the entry. Each entry requires its own URL. DO NOT SUBMIT a single URL with all of your school’s entries in a single folder or Google documents. Please make sure that anyone with the link may view the entry. As a reminder, please do not share all entries in one folder and make sure to only include the page(s) the judge will evaluate.
9. In Column D, only if necessary, you may include a note for judges to consider when reviewing your entry.
10. When you have entered all of the entries for your school, please share your entry sheet with [email protected]. The final deadline is Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2026.
11. If you need to edit the sheet after your initial share, please let [email protected] know of any alterations or additions you’ve made on the sheet. We often upload these as they arrive and we do not go back and check your spreadsheet. Please remember, the final deadline does not change.
12. You may also call Quill and Scroll at (612) 200-9295 for help.
13. Schools may pay for contest entries using either our online credit card payment option or check or purchase order payment.

Judging

Judges will award first, second and third places in each category for each class, and award honorable mentions so that between 10 and 15 percent of all entries are recognized in every category. All high school students named as award recipients will be eligible to apply for Quill and Scroll student scholarships in May of their senior year.

Quill and Scroll administrators will then tally points (5 for first place, 4 for second, 3 for third and 1 for HM) to determine a Blue and Gold Award winner for each class, as well as three places in each of the subheadings — Design, Writing and Photo. Last year’s overall winners were Wando High School of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina in Class A and Christ Presbyterian Academy of Nashville, Tennessee in Class B.

Quill and Scroll hopes to announce winners by Dec. 1, 2026.

Here’s a complete list of last year’s winners.