Dear Writer,
Thank you for your interest in sending work to The Blue Pencil Online, the premier student-edited, student-run online literary magazine of exemplary high school writing worldwide. If you are a writer no older than eighteen years-old, who has not yet graduated high school, we welcome the opportunity to read your original poetry, fiction, plays, and creative nonfiction.
Every piece receives close attention. All submissions are read “blind” by at least three members of the Editorial Board (your name therefore should not appear on any page of the work you send). We encourage you to acquaint yourself with the current issue and the archived work from past years. If you find you have an affinity with the writing we publish and you have work you would like to submit, be sure to consult the guidelines before sending your work. And please note that submissions are accepted only through our Submission Manager, between October 6, 2011 and May 4, 2012. Please remember that any work by writers in 8th, 9th,10th, and 11th grades that is submitted on or before February 1 is also considered for The Elizabeth Bishop Prizes.
Please visit often and peruse thoroughly our Features Blog. In the months between issues, there are several publishing and participation opportunities there as well. Our Features, updated weekly, include prompts and exercises for writers, called Sharpeners, and we welcome work generated using one of these prompts. The Features Blog also regularly publishes offerings from contributors as well as our editors in the following categories: Pencil Shavings, The Draft Board, A Good Read, and Out Loud!, Please familiarize yourself with the overview descriptions and the examples of work in each of those categories. If you would like to submit something for our Features blog, please do so through our Submission Manager.
Please remember we cannot consider submissions sent by email. We look forward to hearing from you! . .
The Editors