The Blue Pencil Online

If you are a writer between the ages of 12 and 18 who has not yet graduated high school, you are eligible to submit work for consideration in The Blue Pencil Online. 

Please read the following guidelines carefully:

• We accept work in doc, docx, rtf, and txt formats.

• We cannot accept work previously published in other publications.

• All submissions are read "blind" by the editors. Please do not include your name or any identifying information on the pages of your work.

• Please do not submit any English class essays or excerpts from longer works.   

• Do tell us your name, address, school, the year you will graduate, and the name of your English or Writing teacher in the cover letter field provided.

• Also, use the cover letter to tell us anything supplemental and relevant about yourself or the piece you are submitting.

• We do our best to reply within one month of your submission.

• We do accept simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you log into the submission manager and withdraw the work as soon as you decide to publish it elsewhere.

• All work by 9th-, 10th-, or 11th-grade (or international equivalent) writers submitted on or before January 31, 2015, is also automatically considered for the Elizabeth Bishop Prizes awarded each spring.

• Please remember that we cannot consider submissions sent to our email address.

We are excited to read your work. Thank you for submitting!