A 17-year-old high school senior from South Carolina has won a prestigious national writing award. 

Malachi Jones joins the ranks of Truman Capote, Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates as one of 16 national winners of the 2018 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. 

According to The Post and Courier, Jones is a student at Charleston County School of the Arts and one of only two students in South Carolina to receive the honor. Vicky Brown of Greenville, South Carolina, was also selected for the award, The Post and Courier reported. 

Jones was awarded the Gold Medal Portfolio, which is awarded to eight writers and eight artists across the country. As part of the prestigious honor, Jones will receive a $10,000 scholarship and a trip to Carnegie Hall for an award ceremony in the summer. Some 346,000 students reportedly entered the competition this year, The Post and Courier reported. 

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are awarded by the nonprofit Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. Jones, who will attend Columbia University this fall, submitted a portfolio titled "Forget Us Not," which is a collection of his poetry and non-fiction essays on race and identity in America, as stated on the Charleston County School District site. 

Jones told The Post and Courier that he is inspired by literary greats Kurt Vonnegut, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Raymond Carver, Toni Morrison and James Baldwin. 

"I’m unapologetically who I am and black," he said. "I’m happy about it. I love it."

We know that's right, Malachi!

Malachi JonesNational Awardscholarship