Teachers & Writers Magazine is published by Teachers & Writers Collaborative as a free resource to teachers of creative writing in support of our mission:
Teachers & Writers Collaborative (T&W) celebrates the imagination through transformative writing and arts education for youth and lifelong learners. Our programs and publications inspire classroom innovation and create greater equity in and through the literary arts.
The magazine offers a wide and continually changing selection of lesson plans, essays, and interviews tailored for those in the field of creative writing education. We publish both practical and theoretical work and look for writing that is vivid, original, concise, and geared toward a general audience.
The Bechtel Prize
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.
T&W will begin accepting submissions for the 2026 Bechtel Prize on October 1, 2025. Learn more about the Bechtel Prize and how to submit here:
General Submissions
Please read through these guidelines before submitting a query or manuscript. Instructions for making a submission are included below.
What We’re Looking For
- Our readers come to the magazine to find both inspiration and original approaches for teaching creative writing in elementary, middle, and high school classrooms, as well as in college and community settings.
- Most of the pieces we publish are penned by writers—working in a variety of genres—who teach their art in classrooms or by classroom teachers whose focus includes creative writing. All of our contributors are paired with an editor and undergo a supportive and collaborative editorial process. All work is edited thoroughly.
- We believe writers should be paid for their work, and we provide compensation for published writing. Our compensation for articles ranges from $75 – $150, payable upon publication. All queries and submissions are accepted on spec without a kill fee.
Articles We Publish
Explore the categories below to see the types of article we commission along with pay rates, word count, and examples:
Favorite Classroom Writing Prompts
Pay: $75; Word count: 500 – 750 words
What is your favorite poem, essay, or short fiction to teach in the classroom? How do you use this piece as the basis for a creative writing lesson? What kind of student writing has the teaching of this piece inspired? Please limit your pitches to pieces you have taught already and not pieces you hope to teach. This should be a personal piece reflecting your teaching philosophy and lived experience.
Examples:
“What I Got: Nina Simone and the Freedom to Write and Dance” by Alba Delia Hernández
“Let There Be Light!: Writing to Describe Sense of Sight” by Robyn Carter
“Rosebuds Folded Over in Sleep: Teaching the Sonnets of Ishle Yi Park to High School Students” by Bushra Rehman
Narrative Lesson Plans
Pay: $100; Word Count: 750 – 2,000 words
Narrative lesson plans take a deeper dive into a specific creative writing lesson plan. They present a clear, scaffolded approach from presentation to the main writing activity to the closing reflection. They also tell a story, sketching the atmosphere in the classroom (including snippets of class discussions, student questions and responses, difficulties and surprises the writer encountered, etc.), and give a sense of how the writer brings his or her creative philosophy to bear on the lesson at hand. These lesson plans should also include examples of student writing generated by the writing prompts in the piece.
Note: Permission for use of student writing must be aquired from the student (if 18 or older) or from a parent/guardian (if the student is under 18). Download T&W Permission Form.
Examples:
“‘What If’ Poems: Reckoning with History and Trauma through Artistic Re-envisioning” by Brittny Ray Crowell
“Mis Antepasados / My Ancestors: Using Creative Writing to Spark Language Learning” by Alexandra Newton Rios
The Art of Teaching Writing
Pay: $150; Word Count: 1,000 – 3,000 words
Do you have a thoughtful response to the latest news in arts education or the literary community that can impact the way we teach creative writing in the classroom? Share it with us. This may include articles, essays, editorials, and meditations on current issues, innovations, or concerns in arts education. Submissions may advocate for the value of literary arts education; explore using diverse voices from outside the traditional literary canon as models or looking at traditional texts in new ways; or provide glimpses into the joys, struggles, and successes of teaching creative writing both within and outside formal education settings.
Examples:
“A Place for Us: Student Poetry that Looks Back to Move Forward” by Kristen Moraine
“English 110 Versus ChatGPT: Finding a Middle Ground with AI Usage in the Composition Classroom” by India Choquette
“Canon in a Flash: Reshaping the Canon with Flash Fiction in the Creative Writing Classroom” by Andrea Rinard
Interviews
Pay: $150; Word Count: 1,000 – 2,500 words
Conversations with poets, novelists, essayists, nonfiction writers, and playwrights about their work and craft, as well as their thoughts on creative writing education.
For accepted interviews, we can also offer $150 to the interviewee and up to $50 for transcription software upon request and with receipt.
Examples:
“Vulnerability Is the Hardest, Bravest Place to Go: A Conversation with Melissa Febos” by Lizz Dawson
“War in the Creative Writing Classroom: A Conversation with Salar Abdoh” by Aybike Ahmedi
“Writing as an Act of Research: A Conversation with Poet Carlina Duan” by Laura Winnick
T&W Series
Teachers & Writers Magazine publishes two ongoing series: Banned Book Writing Prompts, which shares reflections and writing prompts based on banned books, and Teachers on Teachers, in which teachers reflect on how their own instructors have influenced their pedagogy. We welcome queries for potential contributions to either of these series.
Explore Banned Book Writing Prompts and Teachers on Teachers.
What We’re Not Looking For:
- Poetry, fiction, book reviews, or other literary works. T&W Magazine is not a literary magazine. We publish tools, resources, and reflections on the art of teaching creative writing.
- Work written for an academic audience. We prefer a lively, personal style geared toward a general audience.
- Lesson plans or articles focusing on other art forms or non-literary writing (such as visual art and academic or technical writing). Exceptions may be made when integrated with creative writing on a case by case basis.
- Generic content, “Top 10” posts, advertising, or paid links.
Submitting to Teachers & Writers Magazine
When submitting to Teachers & Writers Magazine, you may submit a completed draft that meets the above criteria. Additionally, we welcome queries (500 words maximum) that propose an article you would like to contribute to the magazine. If submitting a query, please describe the topic(s) your article would address and its relevance to the magazine. We also encourage sharing a writing sample that could give our editors a sense of your writing style.
For all submissions, please follow the below guidelines:
- If submitting a completed draft, please double space and use a standard font such as Times New Roman.
- We prefer previously unpublished submissions. We occasionally consider previously published work, and we ask that you clearly indicate if a work has been published elsewhere.
- 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 in 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 submissions prior to publication.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Please notify us immediately if your submission is accepted elsewhere.
All submissions to Teachers & Writers Magazine should be shared via Submittable:
Rights
Upon acceptance, T&W acquires first serial rights. Upon publication, rights revert to the author, with credit to Teachers & Writers Magazine upon future publication. T&W maintains the right to publish articles accepted for Teachers & Writers Magazine in other T&W digital or print publications and to authorize others to reprint articles in the form in which they appeared in the magazine.