About Young Writers Magazine

“No generation is interested in art in quite the same way as any other; each generation, like each individual, brings to the contemplation of art its own categories of appreciation, makes its own demands upon art, and has its own uses for art.”
— T.S. Eliot

Young Writers is an independent online magazine for readers of all ages. We discover excellent writing by teenagers and share it with an appreciative audience.

Thirteen- to nineteen-year-olds around the world are producing stunning material in the form of short stories, poetry, and creative essays. We seek out and share the very best.

Editorially, we value writing with a strong voice that surprises and delights us as readers with a fresh perspective, adept use of language, and a brave, clear vision of the world. In terms of subject matter, the writing we publish tends to address the exterior world rather than the limited realm of a particular teenager’s inner world. We agree with Wallace Stegner, who in a 1959 letter to a young writer emphasized that writing does not mean “self-expression, which means self-indulgence.”

Young Writers magazine was previously published under the name Frodo’s Notebook from 1998 to 2011. It was launched in 1998 by a Daniel Klotz when he was a teenager, and it and has stayed online ever since.

Our complete website is always presented free of charge and free of advertisements.

A Focus on Literary Quality

We actively seek the work of extremely talented teenage writers. Browse the site and see for yourself.

Writers published in Young Writers have also had work appear in The New York Times, National Lampoon, New York magazine, McSweeney’s, Library Journal, Harvard International Review, elimae, and many, many others. Contributors have earned admission to top-tier schools including Dartmuth College, NYU, University of Chicago, and Fordham University. In adulthood, some have reached the level of senior editor at major publishing houses, been awarded for their work as broadcast journalists, and earned MFAs in creative writing and PhDs in fields including English literature and linguistics.

Work originally appearing in Young Writers has been republished in Our Boys Speak (St. Martin’s Press) and other print and online anthologies.

What Young Writers Magazine is Not

We are not

  • associated with, funded by, or partial to any educational institution, publishing corporation, or other organization;
  • an awards program to encourage young writers;
  • an opportunity for students to gain experience running a literary publication;
  • a source of feedback to help young writers improve.

Please see the “Websites We Recommend” section below for links to websites, publications, organizations, and programs that are these things (and are very good at filling those roles). Young Writers magazine is focused exclusively on finding great poetry, short stories, and creative essays by teenagers and sharing it with a large audience.

We do not believe we are publishing the “next generation” of writers. Instead, we believe we are publishing work by members of a current generation of writers.

We are not focused on the future potential of teenage writers. Instead, we are focused on their current actual written work, which we believe can be of the highest literary quality and offers a unique perspective and voice that is lost in adulthood.

Acknowledgements

Special gratitude goes to many individuals and organizations who played key roles in making this magazine what it is. High on the list are Timothy Rezendes, Julia Shields, Eric Sütter, J. Mark Tebben, Tina Rothfus, Ben Carr, Amanda Leas Klotz, and Haylee Chancellor. During the time when we were teenagers and early-twenty-somethings ourselves, our parents and families provided much-needed financial support, for which we are deeply grateful.

Websites We Recommend

We feel a special kinship with a short list of long-standing websites and publications that we recommend for your exploration:

We deeply respect these websites, organizations, awards programs, and publications that fill important roles that Young Writers magazine specifically does not:

  • Young Writers Online – Active forums for getting feedback and critique on creative writing
  • The Adroit Journal – A literary quarterly of work primarily by adults but edited by high school and undergraduate college/university students
  • Adroit Prizes – A creative writings awards program open only to high school and undergraduate college/university students
  • The Concord Review – A top-notch academic journal that only prints work by high school students, and only academic papers about history
  • Hanging Loose Press – Publishes a literary magazine that has included a section of work by high school students since 1968 and has published anthologies of work from that section of its magazine