CANVAS
editor-selected
Age Range: 13-18
Accepts: fiction, poetry, plays, creative nonfiction, new media, cross-genre, art
Website
Submission Guidelines for Writers
Submission Guidelines for Artists
View a Sample Issue
Published four times a year and run by an all-student editorial board, Canvas publishes high-quality student writing and cover art in a variety of formats: online, pdf, ebooks, and print books. Something else cool: They also feature sound files of authors reading their work and some video interviews with authors. Canvas has only been around since 2013, and if what they’ve done so far is any indication of where they’re going, they will soon become a considerable force on the student literary scene.
CELEBRATING ART
editor-selected
Age Range: Grades K-12
Accepts: any art that can be captured in a still digital image
Website
Blog
Contest Rules
“Devoted to the promotion of the arts, art appreciation and teaching,” Celebrating Art holds three contests per year, in April, August, and December — and publishes the winning pieces in a hardcover book. On their blog, selected winners get their own features. Students who make the top ten in their age category win $25 and a free copy of the book, which normally costs $29.95. And there’s an incentive for educators, too: Teachers who have five or more students whose work is published win a free copy of the book.
CICADA
editor-selected
Age Range: All ages, including adult writers. (readers are 14+)
Accepts: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, alternative comics, illustrations by assignment
Website
Submission Guidelines
Read a Sample Issue
Part of the Cricket family of magazines (including Cricket, Ladybug, and Muse, among others), Cicada publishes writing for an audience of readers ages 14 and up. Artists are published by assignment only; to be considered, you first submit samples of your work. Because student work is competing with the work of adult writers and artists, competition is stiff. One more thing: This is a publication that pays for its talent. Fiction and nonfiction writers receive up to 25 cents per word, poets up to $3.00 per line.
THE CLAREMONT REVIEW
editor-selected
Age Range: 13-19
Accepts: fiction,poetry, plays, interviews, art that can be presented in still digital image
Website
Submission Guidelines for Writers
Submission Guidelines for Artists
Read Samples of Published Work
Named the 1999 “Literary Magazine of the Year” by Write magazine, the Canadian-published Claremont Review has the look and feel of a legitimate, traditional literary magazine. Since it is currently available only in print, I ordered myself a hard copy. It’s a solid publication with a clean design, with a nice mix of prose, poetry, and artwork, along with a section of contributors’ notes at the end. Claremont takes the growth of its writers seriously, even those they do not publish: All submissions that are accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope will receive written commentary on their work.
FIGMENT
self-publishing
Age Range: 13 and up
Accepts: poetry, fiction, plays, non-fiction
Website
Guidelines for Posting
Named one of the 25 Best Websites for Teachers by Scholastic, Figment is an online community where students self-publish their writing. Contributors — or “Figs,” as they are nicknamed on the site — earn badges by reading and reviewing other Figs’ work and submitting their own. The site regularly runs contests, polls and quizzes, and provides space for public and private groups — even teachers can create class groups for sharing and discussing work.
LAUNCH PAD
editor-selected
Age Range: 6 to 14
Accepts: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and illustrations by assignment
Website
Submission Guidelines for Writers
Submission Guidelines for Artists
Read a Sample Piece
Since 2007, Launch Pad has been publishing original writing and art by children. A look at the site suggests that a new piece is published once a month on average, which is not very frequent. Still, it’s got one of the lowest age limits for writing, so aspiring elementary-age writers should give this one a look.
NEW MOON GIRLS
editor-selected and self-publishing
Age Range: 8 & up, girls only
Accepts: fiction, poetry, personal essays, how-to articles, art, comics, photography
Website
Submission Guidelines
View a Sample Issue
This is a fantastic site. New Moon Girls has two components: The first is a safe, supervised, ad-free online community for writers and artists to meet and talk with other girls and publish their own stuff (membership is $25.95 per year). The second is a print magazine, published six times a year, each one built around a pre-determined theme and put together by an editorial board of girls between the ages of 8 and 14. From their website: “We go beyond other websites — ones that give lip service to telling girls they can be more, while selling them superficial products that stereotype and diminish girls. New Moon Girls provides tools and spaces where girls can actually be more right now in their daily lives.”
POLYPHONY H.S.
editor-selected
Age Range: High School (grades 9-12)
Accepts: fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction
Website
Submission Guidelines
Because no online samples of Polyphony H.S. are available, I went ahead and bought a copy for my Kindle, and I’m so glad I did, because Polyphony H.S. is kind of incredible. Not only is the work really, really good, but each piece is followed up by a comment by one of the editors who chose it for publication. This adds a personal touch, demystifying and humanizing the editorial process. Even thought the magazine has an impressive advisory board (including authors like Stuart Dybek, Chang-rae Lee and Gary Shteyngart), they still invite students to join their editorial staff. And they give feedback to every author who submits a manuscript. Managing editor Billy Lombardo explains their commitment to all writers: “Each of the 1,076 submissions we received this year represents an attempt of a teenager to make art of life, to put words — precise and beautiful — to the thing urging for release within. And in that way every submission we receive is something to be celebrated, something to be recognized, is some kind of triumph.”
STONE SOUP
editor-selected
Age Range: 13 and younger
Accepts: stories, poems, book reviews, illustrations by assignment
Website
Contributor Guidelines
View a Sample Issue
Started in 1973, Stone Soup is one of the oldest and most well-established publishers of original writing and art by children. My family has subscribed to this magazine for a few months now, and the quality is excellent. The magazine is published six times per year, in print and an iPad version. After written work is submitted, the editors match illustrators with stories and poems, resulting in pieces that are written and illustrated by two different kids. And like Cicada, Stone Soup pays their writers and artists. As of this writing, illustrators get $25 per illustration, and writers get $40 per piece.
STORYBIRD
self-publishing
Age Range: all ages
Accepts: fiction and poetry
Website
Sample Story
Storybird is a gorgeous site with a unique approach: Writers explore a gallery of professionally created artwork until they find something that inspires them. Then they write stories and poems to go with those images, and publish the finished product — illustrations included — on Storybird. Students can create their own individual accounts, and teachers can create “classes” within the Storybird environment where they can give and grade assignments, and students can read and comment on each other’s work in a safe, private class library.
TEEN INK
editor-selected
Age Range: 13 to 19
Accepts: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, reviews, art
Website
Submission Guidelines
Sample Issue
One of the longest-running publishers of student writing, Teen Inkputs out 10 issues of their print magazine each year and showcases much more student work on their website and in print anthologies. They also offer an online forum, where students can talk with other teens about their writing or other issues impacting their lives. Educator subscription rates are available.
VOODOOCHILLI
self-publishing
Age Range: none (some “adult” content…not appropriate for younger artists)
Accepts: any form of visual art that can be captured in a still digital image
Website
View a Sample Portfolio
On Voodoochilli, artists create their own online portfolios to share with the world. From the website: “One of the main philosophies behind Voodoochilli is that anyone should feel able to show off their artwork, regardless of ability or training, and we have discovered that giving people the confidence to do just that really helps them to excel. As human beings, art is a part of us all, it is not something for an elite few.” A free account allows you to upload up to 12 images, and by participating actively in the community, artists can earn enough “chiles” to get a free Pro membership, which allows unlimited uploads and the opportunity to sell your artwork.
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FanFiction
Based in Toronto, Wattpad is one of the largest book communities on the web, and one of the largest sources of free reads.
Monthly audience of over 10 million readers spends here over 2 billion minutes every month. Every minute the site connects more than 10,000 readers with a new story.
PALNYC 