Adolescent voices wanted for the TeenQuill Writing Contest. Participants submit an original, unpublished work in English, including short stories, nonfiction essays, plays, or poetry. Selected entries will be eligible for a $50 Amazon E-Gift Card and publication within Kinsman Quarterly's online and printed publications, social media platforms, and annual anthology. 

Submissions are open throughout the year. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, however submissions should be withdrawn if accepted elsewhere. To ensure that we are able to publish the unpublished work, winning contestants and finalists are asked to wait a full year after winning announcements before they republish the work themselves or with another organization. Copyrights of the individual submissions remain with the authors and artists, and copyrights for the anthology as a collection are reserved to Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc. Contestants under 18 years old need the consult of a parent/guardian. 

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Those Eligible

• individuals under 19 years old
• BIPOC and underrepresented voices (preferred, but not limited to)
• Amazon gift cards prizes are non-transferable. 

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By submitting an original, unpublished work, contestants authorize work to be published in the Kinsman Quarterly, its annual anthology, within its promotional announcements, and social media outlets. Works detected to be AI-generated will be declined. 

Contest Guidelines

• Each entry should be an original, unpublished work by the submitting author, which does not infringe upon the copyrights of another individual or entity. If a work is found to be plagiarized, the offending contestant will be liable for all costs related to the plagiarism, including legal liabilities and the return of any winnings. 
• Employees, team members, and directors of Kinsman Quarterly and Kinsman Avenue Publishing are ineligible to enter Kinsman Quarterly contests.
• Submissions are received throughout the year. 
• Submissions should feature themes related to adolescents and youths (sexual or mature content unaccepted)
• PARTICIPANTS MAY NOT SUBMIT MORE THAN ONE ENTRY TO THIS CONTEST WITHIN THE SAME GENRE. STUDENTS MAY SUBMIT A COLLECTION OF POEMS IN ONE DOCUMENT. ALL SUBSEQUENT ENTRIES WILL BE DECLINED (poetry collections with more than one poem must be submitted in one docx or pdf file). 
• Changes to the competition entry cannot be made once a work is submitted. However, the work can be resubmitted as a revision.    

Genre Guidelines:​

• short stories (300-2000 words)
• creative nonfiction (300-2000 words)
• unpublished poems, poetry collections, or plays (up to 10 pages - individual poems cannot be extracted from a collection once accepted into the finals)

Formatting Guidelines

• All text entries must be in Times New Roman, font size 12, double-spaced. 
• Files should be submitted in .doc, .docx, or .pdf formats. (NOT a .txt file)
• Multipage submissions must include page numbers (not mandatory for title pages)
• Be sure to remove all track changes from edited text. 
• FILE Names should include genre, title, and name of author.  Sample: "Poetry_The Flight of Eagles_John-Doe"
• Entries that do not adhere to guidelines will not be considered.