Get Published
Curated here are links to contests and other forums where you can submit your writing and artwork for possible publication.
We will do our best to maintain the currency of this list; please notify us if any of these links become outdated.
Submit Writing & Art
From The New York Times Learning Network
Daily writing prompts: Our Student Opinion question and Picture Prompt offer anyone 13 to 19 years old a place to publicly post writing that is read by our editors and other students around the world. We are not looking for formal work here; instead, we encourage students to use these forums to hone their voices, ideas and opinions; show us their thinking; and participate in civil discussion about issues from politics to pop culture. Each week, we publish a roundup of favorite responses.
Our annual contests are places to submit more formal work across genres. Here is what we are offering in the 2019-20 school year, but please visit our Contest Calendar to find details.
Categories include: Critical Essay; Dramatic Script; Flash Fiction; Humor; Journalism; Novel Writing; Personal Essay & Memoir; Poetry; Science Fiction & Fantasy; Short Story; Writing Portfolio (graduating seniors only); Architecture & Industrial Design; Ceramics & Glass; Comic Art; Design; Digital Art; Drawing & Illustration; Editorial Cartoon; Fashion; Film & Animation; Jewelry; Mixed Media; Painting; Photography; Printmaking; Sculpture; Video Game Design; Art Portfolio (graduating seniors only) and Future New.
The journal has its eyes focused ahead, seeking to showcase what its global staff of emerging writers sees as the future of poetry, prose and art. We’re looking for work that’s bizarre, authentic, subtle, outrageous, indefinable, raw, paradoxical. We’ve got our eyes on the horizon.
The online publication is known for featuring quality, creative, thoughtful and often thought-provoking written and artistic work written and edited by children and teenagers. Accepts writing, art, photography or videography from young people who are 5 to 18 years old.
The best writing and illustrations from entries we receive each year from secondary schools throughout the United States and abroad. Every September we send copies printed by The Patriot News in Mechanicsburg, Pa., to approximately 3,000 schools. Susquehanna University and the Writers Institute invite high school students to submit fiction, memoir, personal essay, photography and/or poetry for their annual edition of The Apprentice Writer, which publishes in the fall each year.
Publishes the work of high-school-age writers and artists from around the globe. All forms of original writing and art are accepted as submissions for our biannual journal.
An international teen anthology of poetry and art. In print for 20 years, we accept submissions from teenagers from around the world. Each year we publish the best of all entries received.
The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) was established in 1981 to identify and nurture the most accomplished young artists in the visual, literary, design and performing arts, and assist them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development. YoungArts’ signature program is an annual application-based award for emerging artists ages 15 to 18 or in grades 10 to 12 from across the United States in categories that include cinematic arts; classical music; dance; design arts; jazz; photography; theater; visual arts; voice; and writing.
Our free, annual, international youth poetry and art contest — the largest in the world — inspires children ages 5 to 19 to translate their observations into creative expression.
We are a nonprofit magazine for youth that encourages communication, cooperation, creativity and celebration of cultural and environmental richness. It provides a playful forum for sharing ideas and experiences among youth from different countries and cultures. We are an ad-free, ecologically-aware, literary magazine printed on recycled paper with soy ink. Accepts many kinds of writing, including essays, stories, letters to the editor, riddles and proverbs, as well as drawings, paintings and photos.
A national teen magazine, book series, and website devoted entirely to teenage writing, art, photos, and forums. For over 25 years, Teen Ink has offered teenagers the opportunity to publish their creative work and opinions on issues that affect their lives — everything from love and family to school, current events, and self-esteem. We have no staff writers or artists; we depend completely on submissions from teenagers around the world for our content. Teen Ink has the largest distribution of any publication of its kind.
Submit Visual Arts
Each spring, the Congressional Institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual art competition to recognize and encourage artistic talent in the nation and in each congressional district. Since the Artistic Discovery competition began in 1982, more than 650,000 high school students have participated.
Students submit entries to their representative’s office, and panels of district artists select the winning entries. Winners are recognized both in their district and at an annual awards ceremony in Washington. The winning works are displayed for one year at the U.S. Capitol.
Calling all K-12 students — bring your creativity to life in a Doodle of the Google logo, using any medium you choose for the chance to be a Doodle 4 Google winner. The National Winner’s artwork will be featured on the Google home page, and will win a $30,000 scholarship and a $50,000 tech grant for their school.
The Gutenberg Award recognizes exceptional achievement in the field of graphic arts. Awards are available for printed items, websites, and photographs. Entries may be submitted by graphic arts students at any educational level including those in university, college, community-college, postsecondary technical school, high school vocational, high school technology education, and junior high/middle school technology education programs. There are three different Gutenberg competitions: print, website, and photography.
High school students may submit visual art and photography, painting, drawing, ceramics, glass, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, weaving, digital and 35mm photography.
Express yourself by providing an artistic representation of who you are or your worldview through film. Films should be no more than 5 minutes long, and submissions can be made in the following categories: scripted film narrative, animation, documentary, or music video/musical/dance performance.
The All American High School Film Festival is the largest student film festival in the world. Our festival offers an unparalleled experience designed specifically to promote and empower the future of film. Each October, thousands of student filmmakers join us in New York City for an action-packed weekend of resources and entertainment, including our Teen Indie Awards Show, where we hand out over $400,000 in prizes and scholarships.
The American Youth Film Festival is an opportunity for the youth to showcase their movie making skills. Categories include animation; comedy; commercials; documentary; feature; music video; public service announcements; science fiction; and short.
The Boulder International Film Festival is currently accepting entries of short films made by teenagers (ages 12-18) for the Boulder International Film Festival Youth Pavilion. Winners must be present at Teen Opening Night the evening of March 1.
Cinema/Chicago’s CineYouth Film Festival is designed to encourage youth filmmakers in their creative endeavors. CineYouth provides opportunities for young filmmakers to articulate themselves artistically, and have their voice heard. Held annually in Chicago, CineYouth is a three-day festival celebrating and fostering the creativity of filmmakers 22 years old and younger by screening officially selected work and encouraging their creative endeavors by presenting a filmmaking workshop, discussions and panels.
GIF IT UP is an annual international gif-making campaign that encourages people to create new, fun, and unique gif artworks from digitized cultural heritage materials. Entrants are invited to search, discover, adapt, and reuse public domain and openly licensed video clips, images, art, documents, or other materials found in D.P.L.A. or international partner libraries Europeana, Trove, and DigitalNZ.
The High School Film Competition encourages tomorrow’s filmmakers to create films that inspire filmmakers and audiences through the transformative power of the art form. Students may submit short films under 15 minutes in length that are documentary or narrative; live-action or animated.
An international competition for narrative, nonfiction and animated films under 40 minutes in length created by filmmakers aged 18 and under.
Celebrates the cinematic works, visions, and perspectives of young people from around the world. Through the exhibition of youth-created media, the festival seeks to create a forum for young filmmakers and encourage freedom of expression through cinema. The free event features a screening of short films created by filmmakers 18 years and younger.
Filmmakers who are age 18 and under can send work to FutureWave Shorts.
The A.A.P.T. High School Physics Photo Contest is an international competition for high school students. For many years this contest has provided teachers and students an opportunity to learn about the physics behind natural and contrived situations by creating visual and written illustrations of various physical concepts. Students compete in an international arena with more than 1,000 of their peers for recognition and prizes.
Aspiring photographers across the country are invited to snap and submit images that capture the spirit of exploration.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year uses photography to challenge perceptions about the natural world, helping to promote sustainability and the conservation of wildlife. We celebrate biodiversity, evolution and the origins of life, and aim to inspire a greater understanding of nature. We champion ethical wildlife photography. This means we advocate faithful representations of the natural world that are free from excessive digital manipulation, accompanied by honest captions and that display total respect for animals and their environments.
Rocky Mountain School of Photography trains students of all ages to become passionate image-makers through practical, hands-on learning environments for all skill levels. The R.M.S.P. High School Photo Contest is an annual opportunity for students aged 14-18 to submit their best images for the chance to win a new camera and other prizes.
We are looking for the next generation of talented photographers! The Youth competition, for everyone aged 12-19, recognizes that a love for photography often starts at a young age. The competition helps young photographers grow and flourish into the next stages of their careers. Judges are looking for good composition, creativity and clear photography. The 2019 theme is “Diversity”: In one single image show the judges an example of diversity. To be understood in its widest sense, the image of diversity could concern people, culture or environment and could be of a local or global concern. All techniques and styles are welcomed, and judges will particularly reward creativity.
Submit Writing
Bennington launched the Young Writers Awards to promote excellence in writing at the high school level. Our goal with this competition is to recognize outstanding writing achievement by high school students. Each year, students in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades are invited to enter poetry, fiction or nonfiction.
Canvas Teen Literary Journal is a quarterly journal with seasonal issues in October, January, April and July. We publish the work of teen writers 13 to 18 years old, read and rated by a board of teen editors. Our contributors and editors are from all over the English-speaking world and represent some of the best teen writing out there, in our humble opinion.
Ember is a semiannual journal of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for all age groups. Submissions for and by readers aged 10 to 18 are strongly encouraged.
Fiction and poetry for a general audience, but has a regular section devoted to writing by talented high school writers.
Hypernova Lit is an online journal dedicated to publishing the writing and visual art of teenagers. We seek to cast light on the brilliant work produced by teenagers. We are deeply committed to honesty and fearlessness in the work we publish, with a particular emphasis on teenagers telling their own difficult truths. Out of respect for our writers and artists, we do not censor for language or content.
To encourage high school juniors to write and to publicly recognize the best student writers.
Since 2009, the Norman Mailer Center has collaborated with the National Council of Teachers of English to present the Mailer Student and Teacher Writing Awards. Awards are given for fiction, nonfiction writing, and poetry. National winners in each category receive a cash prize presented at an award ceremony. Recognition is also extended to writers whose work earns top scores in early evaluation rounds.
A student-run, international literary magazine for high school writers and editors, which invites submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction from high school students worldwide. Our student editors provide feedback to all submissions, including the ones we do not accept for publication.
Accepts essays, fiction and poetry. All finalists will receive a Certificate of Honorable Mention. All winners will be considered for publication in Venture, Rider’s literary magazine.
We’re a community of young writers (ages 13 to 18), hailing from over 120 countries. Join our global platform, and explore our ever-changing library of prompts as you establish a regular writing practice and expand your repertoire of styles, all while building your portfolio of polished work. Enter competitions for the chance to receive feedback from authors, writing teachers, and other experts in the field.
The Concord Review, Inc., was founded in March 1987 to recognize and to publish exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world. With the Fall Issue (#118), 1,196 research papers (average 7,500 words, with endnotes and bibliography) have been published from authors in 45 states and 40 other countries. The Concord Review remains the only quarterly journal in the world to publish the academic history papers of secondary students.
Each year more than half a million students participate in the National History Day Contest. Students choose a historical topic related to the annual theme, and then conduct primary and secondary research. You will look through libraries, archives and museums, conduct oral history interviews, and visit historic sites. After you have analyzed and interpreted your sources, and have drawn a conclusion about the significance of your topic, you will then be able to present your work in one of five ways: as a paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary, or a website.
INKspire is a place for youth to share their stories and offer perspectives on relevant, contemporary issues. Young people can learn from one another, share their stories, thoughts and ideas while connecting with other youth around the world.
Young Post is a teen print news and English-teaching product that is part of the South China Morning Post. While we are a Hong Kong product, we do welcome students from around the world in our pages and on our site. We have a Junior Reporters club, in which students learn reporting skills, and pitch and contribute stories. We have local members who have moved overseas for senior school or university who still contribute, but it would be wonderful to hear from more students interested in sharing stories that matter to them with their Asian peers.
We are a site for conversations. We invite youth of all ages to voice their thoughts about their passions, to explain things they understand well, to wonder about things they have just begun to understand, and to share discussion posts with other young people using as many different genres and media as they can imagine!
Why Diplomacy and Peacebuilding Matter: In a 1,000- to 1,250-word essay, identify two cases — one you deem successful and one you deem unsuccessful — where the U.S. pursued an integrated approach to build peace in a conflict-affected country.
Every year, the EngineerGirl website sponsors a contest dealing with engineering and its impact on our world. The topic and detailed instructions for the contest are posted in the fall with a deadline for submissions early the following year. Winners are announced in the spring.
This annual essay contest is organized in an effort to harness the energy, creativity and initiative of the world's youth in promoting a culture of peace and sustainable development. It also aims to inspire society to learn from the young minds and to think about how each of us can make a difference in the world.
Describe and analyze an act of political courage by a US elected official who served during or after 1917.
A publication by and for youth in foster care, the stories in Represent give inspiration and information, while offering staff insight into those teenagers’ struggles.
Beginning in December of 2019, a prompt for this year's contest will be posted. Stay tuned!
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, empowering approach to creative writing. The challenge: draft an entire novel in just one month. For 30 wild, exciting, surprising days, you get to lock away your inner editor, let your imagination take over, and just create! Our Young Writers Program supports under-18 writers and K-12 educators as they participate in our flagship event each November, and take part in smaller writing challenges year-round.
An award-winning quarterly literary magazine that features the work of today’s best teen writers (ages 13-19).
These awards are offered to recognize superior work by student journalists usually as individuals but sometimes as an entire staff working with either print or online media.
Each year, the National Scholastic Press Association presents the Individual Awards, honoring the best individuals in scholastic journalism. There are six categories. Entries are judged by teams of professionals with experience and expertise in the area of each particular contest. The contests are open to any student on staff of an N.S.P.A. member publication.
We encourage, support and recognize individual student initiative and achievement in scholastic journalism, regardless the medium.
A multimedia education project that invited young people in grades 5 through 12 to write letters in response to poems written and read by some of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors.
Eligibility for this annual playwriting contest is limited to students in the 11th grade in the U.S. (or international equivalent of the 11th grade).
Young writers with disabilities and collaborative groups that include students with disabilities, in the U.S. grades 6-12 (or equivalents) or ages 11-18 for non-U.S. students, are invited to explore the disability experience through the art of writing for performance — in the form of plays, screenplays, or music theater. Writers are encouraged to craft short (10 minute) works from their own experiences and observations in the style of realism, through the creation of fictional characters and settings, or writing metaphorically or abstractly about any topic, including the disability experience.
An annual Off-Broadway festival of one-act plays written by playwrights ages 6 to 18 and produced, designed, directed, and acted by New York theater professionals.
The Young Playwrights Festival takes place each spring at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. If your play is selected for the festival, you will work with a creative team composed of National Theater Institute alumni — a director, dramaturg, designer, and actors to develop and stage your script.
We welcome submissions of challenging, entertaining plays and musicals that are appropriate for teen and younger actors and/or audiences.
Sponsored by Hollins University, the Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest provides scholarships, prizes, and recognition for the best poems submitted by high-school-aged women.
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.
The Leonard L. Milberg ’53 High School Poetry Prize recognizes outstanding work by student writers in the 11th grade in the U.S. or abroad.
An innovative, extracurricular program that trains creative high school communicators to bring complex science to the general public through the power of story. Science and technology are advancing exponentially, yet fewer than 7 percent of American adults are scientifically literate. With growing medical, environmental and social issues facing us all, it is essential that the next generation of communicators be prepared to help people make sense of emerging science that affects their personal health and well-being, as well as that of the world around them.
THINK is an annual science research and innovation competition for high school students. Rather than requiring students to have completed a research project before applying, THINK instead caters to students who have done extensive research on the background of a potential research project and are looking for additional guidance in the early stages of their project. The program is organized by a group of undergraduates at MIT.