Open Wednesday through Sunday 10am to 5pm, Holiday Hours: CLOSED Thanksgiving Eve and Day, Christmas Eve and Day, New Year's Eve and Day, Easter Sunday, and July Fourth
Support Us Through Monterey County Gives!
This 2025 Holiday Season we are participating in the MC Gives Campaign, and ask that you help us reach our goals through this matching program.
To kick- the campaign off, please listen to this message from renown humanities and Steinbeck scholar Clay Jenkinson from inside the Rocinante:
The MC Gives! campaign kicks off on November 13th. Click the button below to join this Campaign!
SYA Program Highlights
Details on the 2026 Steinbeck Young Authors program will be available soon!
Day of Writing*
The SYA program hosts a special Day of Writing at the National Steinbeck Center. Here, select students benefit from personalized coaching sessions with experienced writing coaches. These sessions provide invaluable guidance, helping students hone their craft and refine their work. Additionally, to foster a spirit of community engagement and enhance peer learning, the SYA program partnered with local AP English high school students. These dedicated high schoolers provided valuable writing assistance to the middle school participants, fulfilling their graduation volunteer requirements in the process. This innovative collaboration enriched the experience for both student groups, fostering a supportive learning environment.
*Unfortunately, the Day of Writing is only available for local students*
Awards Night
Our annual Awards Night, held in April, is a special occasion where we celebrate our students, their winning submissions, and the dedicated teachers who participate. Our winners are selected by external judges based on both their submissions and the average number of votes received. As a token of appreciation, both the winning students and teachers will receive small gifts alongside our heartfelt praise.
Published Anthology
Finally, we print all of the submissions that we receive via Google Drive through our shared Google Folders. After we get the published books, we deliver or mail those books to the schools where participating teachers hand them out.
Each student who makes a submission will receive a copy of the anthology.
Any leftover copies will be sold in our bookstore for family members that may want their own copy.
Check out our anthology from last year!
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