The New York Times' Modern Love column announced the winner and finalists of its college essay contest. The winning essay, "My Plea for a Sixth Love Language," was written by Layla Kinjawi Faraj of Barnard College.
Finalists included essays exploring various aspects of relationships, such as:
The essays covered a wide spectrum of human experience, highlighting the complexity of relationships and the diversity of perspectives on love. The contest received a significant number of submissions and showcased the talent of many aspiring writers.
Our other finalists explored a wide range of subjects, from wrestling with racial hate, to body image and platonic love, to playlist flirtations on Spotify. We plan to publish the winning essays throughout May and June.
Congratulations to Ms. Faraj and the contest finalists, listed below, and our gratitude to all who participated.
— Daniel Jones, editor of Modern Love, and Miya Lee, editor of Modern Love projects
WINNER
Layla Kinjawi Faraj, Barnard College, Class of 2025, “My Plea for a Sixth Love Language”
FINALISTS
Lily Goldberg, Williams College, Class of 2022, “I Bet You Think These Songs Are About You”
August Singer, Reed College, Class of 2022, “No Longer My Mother’s Daughter”
Joyce Juhee Chung, New York University, Class of 2023, “May We Please Just Date Without Hate?”
Abby Comey, College of William & Mary, Class of 2022, “Not Every Break Up is About Being Broken”
Ife Olatona, Howard University, Class of 2024, “Singleness Is Not a Stigma”
Tatiana Jackson-Saitz, University of Chicago, Class of 2024, “A Texting Lifeline During a Difficult Time”
Kyleigh McPeek, Stanford University, Class of 2024
Contest readers: Danya Issawi and Emma Grillo. See previous contest essays and the entire Modern Love collection.
Modern Love can be reached at modernlove@nytimes.com.
To find previous Modern Love essays, Tiny Love Stories and podcast episodes, visit our archive.
Want more from Modern Love? Watch the TV series; sign up for the newsletter; or listen to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play. We also have swag at the NYT Store and two books, “Modern Love: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption” and “Tiny Love Stories: True Tales of Love in 100 Words or Less.”
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