Each year Teachers & Writers Magazine awards the Bechtel Prize and a $1,000 honorarium for an essay describing a creative writing teaching experience, project, or activity that demonstrates innovation in creative writing instruction. This year, the prize will be judged by Diana Khoi Nguyen. T&W will begin accepting submissions for the 2026 Bechtel Prize on October 1, 2025.
The Bechtel Prize is named for Louise Seaman Bechtel, who was an editor, author, collector of children’s books, and teacher. In 1919, Bechtel became the first person to lead a juvenile book department at an American publishing house. Bechtel helped establish the field of children’s literature and was a tireless advocate for the importance of literature in children’s lives. This award honors her legacy.
Submitting to the 2026 Bechtel Prize
We are looking for essays that describe a project or activity that got students excited about writing and fostered a vibrant and dynamic culture of creative writing in the classroom. We welcome essays about projects that carved a space for students to reflect on current events and social justice. The experience/project/activity should be one that:
- Helped students identify as writers.
- Opened new pathways to creative writing.
- Engaged students in all parts of the writing process.
- Promoted connections between reading and writing.
- Supported the publication of student writing.
The essay itself should:
- Share actual classroom experience, including how students engaged with the project (in other words, this should not be a planned project but one that has already taken place).
- Focus on the classroom experience and what makes it innovative.
- Focus on teaching creative writing (eg. poetry, fiction, memoir, playwriting).
Please do not send essays that have to do with teaching academic writing or teaching literature in general.
This year’s prize will be judged by Diana Khoi Nguyen. The essay selected for the Bechtel Prize will be published in Teachers & Writers Magazine, and the author will receive a $1,000 award.
Poet and multimedia artist Diana Khoi Nguyen is the author of the chaplet Unless (2019), and poetry collections: Ghost Of (2018), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and recipient of the 2019 Kate Tufts Discovery and Colorado Book Awards, and Root Fractures (2024). Her writing appears in Poetry, American Poetry Review, and Asymptote; her video work has been exhibited at Miller ICA. A MacDowell and Kundiman fellow, as well as a member of the Vietnamese diasporic artist collective, She Who Has No Master(s), Nguyen’s other honors include an award from the 92Y “Discovery” Poetry Contest, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, an artist-in-residence at Brown University, and writer-in-residence at UCLA. Currently, she teaches creative writing in the MFA programs at Randolph College and the University of Pittsburgh.
Author photo by Karen Lue.
Submission Guidelines
- Essays must be previously unpublished and under 2,500 words.
- Please double space and use a standard font such as Times New Roman.
- Attach your submissions as a Word Document or PDF.
- The judge will select the winner anonymously. Do NOT include your name or any other identifying information in your document.
- We do not accept work generated by large-language models (colloquially referred to as AI). We believe in process-oriented work, and we want to hear from your unique voice and experience. Large-language models may be used as a critical source for your submission only if it: 1) is clearly cited within the body of your work, 2) is distinguishable in-text from a majority of author-generated content, 3) and is used to explore contemporary issues around AI in the classroom. If we feel this criteria has not been met, the submission will be rejected.
- T&W reserves the right to edit essays prior to publication.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please notify us immediately if your submission is accepted elsewhere.
- Previous winners (first place, runner-up, and honorable mention) must wait at least 2 years before submitting to the prize again.
- Submissions are only accepted through Submittable.com. Please do not email submissions.
All submissions that conform to the above guidelines will also be considered for general publication. Submissions that do not conform to the above guidelines will not be considered for publication or the Bechtel Prize.
Selection criteria for the Bechtel Prize include the submission’s relevance and appropriateness for readers of Teachers & Writers Magazine, most of whom teach writing at the elementary, secondary, or postsecondary levels. Teachers & Writers Magazine publishes work that is concise, lively, and geared toward a general audience. Prospective entrants for the Bechtel Prize are encouraged to visit the magazine to become familiar with the work of Teachers & Writers Magazine and to read past winners of the award. Submissions for the 2026 Bechtel Prize will open on October 1, 2025.
Questions regarding these guidelines may be sent to [email protected]. Please do not send submissions by email.
Previous winners of the Bechtel Prize
2025 – Kristen Moraine – “A Place for Us: Student Poetry that Looks Back to Move Forward“
2024 – Abriana Jetté – “Flexing Our Rhyming Muscles: Introducing the Ghazal“
2023 – William Camponovo – “You Must Change Your Life: Demystifying and Remystifying Poetry in the Classroom”
2022 – Shilpi Suneja – “Multilingual Approaches Toward English Prose“
2021 – Paola Capó-García – “Making Sense of It All: High School Poetry in the Age of Zoom“
2020 – Amy Young – “Jibseria: A Garden Mythology“
2019 – Emily James – “At First, the Ground Shakes“
2018 – Julie Landsman – “Words, Images, and Music: How We Enter“
2017 – M.K. Rainey – “I Hate Writing: On the Necessity of Being Vulnerable“
2016 – Christian McEwen – “Alastair Reid: Traveling Light“
2013 – Chris Belden – “Inside Words: How to Teach Writing in Prison“
2012 – Barbara Flug Colin – “Now Let’s Stare at the Purple“
2011 – Janet L. Bland – “The Possum“
2010 – Garth Greenwell – “A Native Music: Writing the City in Sofia, Bulgaria“
2009 – Emily Raboteau – “A Slip into the Breaks: Teaching Jazz Poetry“
2008 – Michael Bazzett – “Within Words: Making Students at Home in the Language of Literature“
2007 – Anna Sopko – “Writing Standards: Finding One’s Way with Words“