The Blue Pencil is edited and produced by the students in the Creative Writing Program at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, in Natick, Massachusetts. The magazine seeks to publish the best of literary work in English by young writers (12–18) around the world.
Our mission is to celebrate the freshest, most accomplished examples of imaginative literary craft by young writers. Our ideal contributor takes risks, is resourceful and creative, and demonstrates great care with language. We prize writing that avoids cliché and recasts the common with compelling seeing. We hope furthermore for a writer who is engaged and interested in the editorial process in order to hone work that has impact on the reader, leaving him or her with no impulse to skim or navigate away, but instead to linger, reread, and consider. Good writing lasts, stays with the reader. Good writing also establishes habits that stay with the writer. We hope that potential contributors share these premises, and submit with the vision and willingness to apply them to their own writing.
–Editors, 2011-2012
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