Other Places to Publish

The Telling Room loves to publish youth writing through our core programs and writing contest, but if you'd like more places to publish your work outside of The Telling Room, check out this list of other writing contests, writing camps, and conferences. Don't forget to visit local bookstores, libraries, and cafes to see if they do poetry readings and if they’d consider your work. Check and see if your town publishes newspapers with kids’ sections. Be creative, collaborate with other artists, and imagine all the other places your words could go! Good luck, and submit often.

Print and Online Publications for Young Writers

FOR INDIVIDUAL GUIDELINES, VISIT EACH PUBLICATION’S WEBSITE.

Auroras & Blossoms
(ages 13-16)
Submission Window: Deadline is December 31st, 2022
Accepts Online Submissions
The PoArtMo Anthology: Youth Edition gives a voice to the young people whose stories seek to nurture hope and optimism. Types of art: poetry, short stories, flash fiction, essays, and six-word stories. Must be 16 by deadline. No submission fee, one piece per artist only.

Big Writers, Little Ears
(grades 7-12)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
Big Writers, Little Ears features short travel stories written by big kids to engage younger travelers through the magic of storytelling. A print anthology will also be published at year end.

BreakBread Magazine
(ages under 25)
Submission Window: Submissions are open May-August, September-December, and January-April with short closures (a week or less) between each submission period for updates to guidelines.
Accepts Online Submissions
BreakBread Literacy Project is a space for young creatives to take root and grow

Earthbound Journal
(18 and under)
Submission Window: Please email story, photography, and art submissions to info@earthboundjournal.org by March 29, 2023.
Accepts Online Submissions
Issue 10 is dedicated to WATER. All around the world, in all its different forms, water is supporting life! We want to hear from kids about what connections they have to water – rivers, creeks, oceans, wetlands, lakes, rain, snow, ice, fog, clouds, puddles – and the plants, animals, and ecosystems that depend on water. Encourage them to share their drippy, droppy, deep or shallow watery stories with us! Check out the Issue: 10 WATER writing prompt.

Farmer-ish Kids
(ages 12-18)
Submission Window: Please send submissions by May 31, 2023 to farmerish.journal@gmail.com.
Accepts Online Submissions
Farmer-ish publishes both online issues and print collections. We’re looking for creative and engaging content on farming, homesteading, raising animals, cooking, making, and raising a family.

Buttered Toast
(ages 18 and under)
Submission Window: Open submission call from September - November annually.
Accepts Online Submissions
An annual journal by Toad Hall Editions for young writers (female, male and gender diverse) up to 18 years old.

GERM Magazine
(young people—high school age and beyond)
Submission Window: Open submission call
Accepts Online Submissions
Germ’s goal is to provide young people—high school age and beyond—an inclusive space to share their experiences on a wide variety of topics: love, life, health, home, the world, school, career, the future, all things safety, the lighter issues—and the harder ones.

Illustoria
(ages 6 - 18)
Submission Window: Tri-annually
Accepts Online Submissions
Illustoria is a tri-annual print magazine for creative kids published by McSweeney’s. The magazine is filled with games, jokes, stories, projects, interviews, and more. They are the official publication of the International Alliance of Youth Writing Centers, and publish short stories and poems by school-aged contributors from 66 writing centers worldwide. Poems can be 150 words max, and short fiction can be 300 words max.

KidSpirit
(ages 11-17)
Submission Window: Quarterly
Accepts Online Submissions
KidSpirit accepts submissions of poetry, artwork, and nonfiction articles from 11- 17-year-olds everywhere. Works are accepted on a quarterly basis based on the theme of the quarter. 

Magic Dragon
(elementary school)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
This magazine comes out quarterly and publishes stories up to 3 pages, poems up to 30 lines, and artwork.

Matador Review
(high school +)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
They call themselves an “alternative” magazine; that is to say: their purpose is to promote work that is thought-provoking and unconventional. They want the controversial and the radical, the unhinged and the bizarre; they want the obsessive, the compulsive, the pervasive, the combative, and the seductive. They believe that every work of quality art has a home where it belongs, and for the “alternative”, The Matador Review is a home.

Novelly
(ages 15-19)
Submission Window: Jan 31 and August 31
Accepts Online Submissions
Members of the collective are teenagers who: publish an e-book in the Novelly library, use their gifts in writing to celebrate diverse lived experiences, and believe that we can create a more inclusive world through the stories we share.

One Teen Story
(ages 13-19)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
One Teen Story is looking for great short stories focused on teen protagonists and dealing with teen experience (issues of identity, friendship, family, coming-of-age, etc.).

Polyphony Lit
(High School)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
A student-run, international literary magazine for high school writers and editors.

Skipping Stones
(all ages)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
A magazine that celebrates ecological and cultural diversity. Published 5 times a year, they accept essays, stories, letters to the editor, riddles and proverbs, and other creative writing up to 750 words or 30 lines for a poem.

Stone Soup
(ages 8-13)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions, with fee
This magazine is printed six times a year and is entirely made up of stories, poems, book reviews, and artwork by children. Submissions can be up to 2500 words.

Teen Ink
(grades 7-12)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
This website, monthly newsprint magazine, and quarterly poetry magazine features personal essays, short stories, reviews (books, CDs, concerts, movies), and interviews from young authors.

Teen Voices
(Girls, ages 13-19)
Submission Window: Year Round
Accepts Online Submissions
Teen Voices, the global girls’ online news site of Women's eNews, is looking for girls who are interested in journalism and media to write for it site. All girls 13-19 years old are invited to join its writing staff. Teen Voices also publishes a series by and about girls with physical disabilities, called Girl Fuse. For more information about how to get paid to write, check out the submission guidelines.

Contests

MANY CONTESTS INCLUDE PUBLISHING IN THE PRIZE PACKAGE. FOR MORE SPECIFIC INFORMATION, VISIT THE CONTEST WEBSITE.

The Adroit Prizes
(high school and college students)
Submission Deadline: TBA for 2017
Accepts Online Submissions
All secondary and undergraduate students are eligible, including those undergraduate students who have graduated a semester early (i.e., in December 2015). Submissions should include up to eight poems, and up to three works of fiction or nonfiction.

Columbia College Young Authors Writing Competition
(high School students)
Submission Deadline: TBA for 2017
The Young Authors writing competition is a national competition for high school writers of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry.

Foyle Young Poets
(ages 11-17)
Submission Deadline: July 31
Each year 100 winners (85 Commendations and 15 Overall Winners) are selected by a team of high profile judges, and will receive their awards at an annual prize-giving event on National Poetry Day. Overall  Winners will have their poems published in the annual Foyle Anthology. Additionally, winners attend a week-long intensive residential Arvon course where they develop their creative writing skills alongside fellow poets or benefit from long distance mentoring.

LISTEN: A Spoken Word Poetry Contest by Novelly
(ages 15-19)
Submission Window: Yearly in late April
Accepts Online Submissions
LISTEN is a spoken word contest that recognizes talented teenage poets who deeply explore identity and start conversations about important social issues through their art. The winner receives a mentorship session with a published author or poet, publication of their poem in the Novelly library, and a lesson plan and blog post about their poem.

The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers
(sophomores and juniors in highschool only)
Submission Window: November 1-November 30, 2016, TBA for 2017
Accepts Online Submissions
The Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers recognizes outstanding young poets and is open to high school sophomores and juniors throughout the world. The contest winner receives a full scholarship to the Kenyon Review Young Writers workshop. In addition, the winning poem and the poems of the two runners-up will be published in The Kenyon Review, one of the country’s most widely read literary magazines.

Princeton University Poetry Contest for High School Students
(grade 11)
Submission Deadline: 2017 submissions will open late autumn.
Princeton University Poetry contest for High School Students recognizes outstanding work by student writers. The jury consisted of members of the Princeton University Creative Writing faculty.

Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
(grades 7-12)
Submission Window: Beginning September 2016, deadlines vary by region.
Accepts Online Submissions
Cost: $5 per submission
This is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious writing contest in the world. The window is in January each year. Submissions are accepted in all genres. See details on their website for submission requirements.

The Telling Room
(ages 6-18)
Submission Window: Annually mid-October - November.
Accepts Online Submissions
We run a writing contest open to all Maine residents, ages 6-18. Full submission guidelines are available here on our website. Winners are published in our annual anthology, and win a cash prize.

YoungArts
(15–18 or in grades 10–12)
Submission Deadline: October 15th, 2016
Accepts Online Submissions
Cost: $25 per submission
The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) signature program is an application-based award for emerging artists ages from across the United States. Winners receive valuable support, including financial awards of up to $10,000, professional development and educational experiences working with renowned mentor. It is the nation's only path to becoming a Presidential Scholar in the Arts.

Conferences and Camps

TOOLS TO HELP YOU CREATE PUBLISHABLE WORK, OFTEN WITH IN-HOUSE PUBLICATIONS.

New England Young Writers Conference | Bread Loaf
(high school students)
Application/Registration Deadline: Two students per school.
Cost: $375
Teachers may nominate five students and up to two students may attend. The New England Young Writers’ Conference (NEYWC) at Bread Loaf is a four day writing-focused workshop for high school students in New England and from around the country.  The long weekend is packed with writing seminars, workshops, readings, and opportunities to meet fellow young writers.

Idyllwild Youth Writing Program
(ages 11-18)
Application/Registration Deadline: 2016 registration is currently open, TBA for 2017.
Cost: $3,150
Located in Idylwild, California, workshops are open to multiple grade levels, including introductions to genre and writing workshops in both poetry and fiction.

Interlochen Arts Camp
(Grades 3-12)
Application/Registration Deadline: TBA for 2017
Cost: $5,137
Located in Interlochen, Michigan, the daily schedule includes fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and playwriting workshops, "studio time" to work independently and meet one-on-one with faculty, as well as evening readings by the faculty and visiting authors.

Juniper Institute for Young Writers
(Grades 10-12)
Application/Registration Deadline: TBA for 2017
Cost: $1,700
Hosted by the University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets and Writers and the Juniper Summer Writing Institute for adults, the JIYW offers participants a unique opportunity to participate in intensive creative writing workshops, craft sessions, and studio courses designed especially for young writers.

The Telling Room
(ages 6-18)
Application/Registration Deadline: Open until full
Cost: Varies
The Telling Room offers a variety of writing camp options that allow for exploration both on foot and on paper. Due to COVID-19, we are offering a mix of in-person and virtual camps. A wide variety of genres and mediums are available through different camps, including fiction, poetry, essay, and sports writing.