I have some poems, but I don't know where (besides Polyphony) I should send them
Discussion
Do you guys know any international ( I live in India)novel writing competitions for high school students? I’ve surfed the Internet only to find short story competitions.
Shameless plug-- I'm on the staff of a smaller lit mag, Body Without Organs Journal, that is absolutely fantastic. If you want to submit to smaller lit mags, BWO is a great one! I also do Scholastic every year-- NewPages is a great source to find lit mags too
Ooh, thank you! Smaller publications always have the best character. I'll have to check it out.
@Megan Romero Definitely! I love smaller lit mags. Blue Marble Review and Foliate Oak are also great-- I'll have to think of some other ones too
@Cate Pitterle I LOVE Blue Marble Review. I had a piece published there recently. The pay certainly doesn't hurt.
I actually have a Google keep document full of magazines and competitions that are worth it. I'm updating it constantly. Some mags I've submitted to that actually liked me are the Bookends Review, Teen Ink, the Telling Room, and Alexandria Quarterly
Also, a tip when submitting - submit to multiple publications for each piece, and submit to places you don't think you're good enough for. You'll get tons of rejections, but you only need one acceptance. And that one acceptance makes all the difference..
I tried at the Adroit Journal last year. I'd say it's pretty competitive, but in the decision of who wins something, there seems to be little to no bias. You can come from any background, even a non-art background.
Ooh, Adroit is fantastic-- I read one piece, "Sabratha," that won a few years ago, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's so dark and haunting but so beautiful.
Hey Tara! I edited your Prospective First Reader commentary. I just want to give a shoutout to you. You were incredible.
@Lara Katz Wow! I always wanted to put a face or name to those words.
You write beautifully. Your advice was quite gentle but meaningful. I've always hoped to come off in my commentary like you do.
I figured I would add my own suggestions here for the rest of you, since you're being so helpful:
- Scholastic
- Blue Marble Review
- I used to be an editor for Canvas Literary Journal. You can submit, but I am warning you now: their method is nowhere near the same as ours. All the editors deal with hundreds of submissions within a couple months. In addition, they don't train editors or provide feedback. There was one kid that gave every poem bad ratings because they didn't like poetry. Personally, I disagree with that method: I think it leads to the rejection of really amazing pieces. However, if you want to give it a shot, go for it.
- Teen Ink
Geez, is that true about canvas? That's wild. Is that why you're no longer an editor there? If you don't want to go into it, that's OK, I'm just super curious
@Lara Katz No problem. I'm no longer an editor there because I didn't agree with the process in general (the lack of training, the way we couldn't provide feedback, the way we were expected to tackle hundreds of submissions in a few months).
@Lara Katz I didn't have the time to deal with 500 submissions, so I sent them an email. They haven't replied since, so I'm assuming I'm off the team.
I put a list together a few years ago. I'm not even sure all of these magazines are around anymore, but if you're looking for any that give the kind of feedback you all give, you'll be looking for a long time.
Polyphony Lit
Cleaver
Cadaverine
Burningword Literary Journal
Cargoes
Convergence
Teenage Wasteland Review
Vademecum
Sugared Water
Adroit Journal
Louisville Review
Canvas
Fragments of Chiaroscuro
Siblini Art and Literature Journal
Crack the Spine
Live Poets Society
Giant Teen Sequins
Lines and Stars
Verse
The Noisy Island
Textploit
eFiction India
Penguin Inked
Lipstickparty Magazine
Spark
The Blueshift Journal
Glass Kite Anthology
Walnut Hill
These are great! I've heard of some of them-- I was actually thinking of submitting to Blueshift or Burningword. Funnily enough, I also thought about joining Glass Kite's staff before I found Polyphony.
Thanks so much!! Copy and pasted that whole list into a new keep doc.
Thank you so much!
interestingly, you'll find polyphony editors, past and present, have been on the staff of many of these.