Teachers & Writers Magazine is published by Teachers & Writers Collaborative to provide resources and inspiration in support of writers, teaching artists and educators teaching creative writing.
The magazine’s online format offers a wide and continually changing selection of lesson plans, articles, 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, personal, original, concise, and geared toward a general audience.
Before submitting, please carefully review our submission guidelines at https://teachersandwritersmagazine.org/about-us/submission-guidelines.
The 2025 Bechtel Prize for Innovation in Creative Writing Instruction
Teachers & Writers Magazine is now accepting submissions of essays describing a creative writing teaching experience, project, or activity that demonstrates innovation in creative writing instruction. 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 literacy 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.
The essay selected to receive the Bechtel Prize will be published in Teachers & Writers Magazine, and the author will receive a $1,000 award.
The 2025 Bechtel Prize Submission Guidelines
- Essays must be previously unpublished and under 2,500 words. They should include a cover page with the essay title, author’s name, e-mail address, phone number, and a brief bio (no more than 150 words).
- Send submissions in Word or PDF format via Submittable.
- Submissions will be judged anonymously. The author’s name and address must not appear anywhere on the essay.
- Authors of the Bechtel Prize-winning essay and finalists must permit T&W to publish their essays in Teachers & Writers Magazine. T&W reserves the right to edit essays for publication.
- Submissions are only accepted through Submittable.com. Please do not email submissions.
All submissions that conform to the above guidelines will be considered for general publication. Submissions that do not conform to the above guidelines will not be reviewed for 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 level. 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 and to read past winners of the award.
The submission deadline for the 2025 Bechtel Prize is January 10, 2025.
Questions regarding these guidelines may be sent to editors@twc.org. Please do not send submissions by email.
About the Bechtel Prize
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.
Teachers & Writers Magazine is published by Teachers & Writers Collaborative to provide lesson plans, interviews, and personal essays to support teaching creative writing. Complete submission guidelines, including links to samples and descriptions of types of articles we seek, can be found at: https://teachersandwritersmagazine.org/about-us/submission-guidelines. Please review the guidelines carefully before submitting a query or article.
Audience:
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. Lesson plans and essays should be written in a personal style, giving a clear sense of the writer's lived experience in the classroom.
Contributors:
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.
Payment:
We believe writers should be paid for their work, and we provide compensation for published writing. Our compensation for articles ranges from $50 - $350, payable upon publication. All submissions are on spec, and there is no kill fee.
We are not looking for . . .
- Work written for an academic audience. We appreciate a lively personal style geared toward a general audience.
- Poetry or works of fiction. T&W Magazine is not a literary magazine. We publish tools, resources, and reflections on the art of teaching creative writing.
- Lesson plans or articles focusing on other art forms or non-literary writing (such as visual art, performance art, academic writing). Exceptions may be made when integrated with creative writing on a case by case basis.
- Generic content, "Top 10" posts, advertising, paid links. Please review our submissions guidelines carefully before submitting
Rights:
T&W reserves the right:
- To publish articles accepted for Teachers & Writers Magazine in other T&W digital or print publications;
- To authorize others to reprint articles in the form in which they appeared in the magazine; and
- To authorize posting on non-T&W websites of articles in the form in which they appeared in the magazine, with credit to T&W and links to the magazine and T&W websites.