Bunny Matthews

Finding inspiration in the everyday activities of average New Orleanians—from the food they ate, to the music they listened to, and especially the way they talked—Bunny Matthews sought to highlight the distinctiveness of New Orleans and its people. Bunny wanted his cartoon creations to resemble and sound like the people he met in his daily life, which we see in the slang and dialect spoken by characters such as Vic and Nat’ly. Although Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art and Obsessions is a tribute to one city where the artist lived for most of his life, every one of us has things we love about where we’re from and what we feel makes it special.  

For this year’s Student Writing Contest, the Historic New Orleans Collection wants you to consider ideas and examples of place, identity, language, and culture found in the work of Bunny Matthews as well as in your hometown, neighborhood, city, state, or country of birth.

• HNOC will begin accepting submissions on Monday, November 23, 2026 at 8 a.m. CST.
• This contest is open to all students in grades 3–12 in the United States and US territories. 
• Each student may submit only one entry.  
• Entries should be submitted through the HNOC Student Writing Contest form, below. 
• Each entry should be 750 words or less. 
• Each entry must be a wholly original work composed by the submitter.  Any entry that is found to be plagiarized or written using AI software, in whole or in part, will be immediately disqualified. 

The deadline to submit an entry is 11:59 p.m. CST on Monday, March 1, 2027.

A judging panel of HNOC staff will select winning elementary (grades 3–5), middle school (grades 6–8), and high school (grades 9–12) entries. The winning writers from each category will receive $350 for first place, $250 for second place, $150 for third place, and $50 for honorable mentions. In addition, all winners’ entries will be published on HNOC’s website. 

Winners will be announced by Friday, April 9, 2027.