There”s an odd little dichotomy in the world of publishing poetry, an age skip that”s akin to the soap opera kid trick – that”s the one where the cutesy seven year old kid brother or daughter of one of the major characters goes off to boarding school, and returns a month later at the start of the summer season as a 16 year old, thereby skipping all those awkward years when they”re neither cute, nor romantically interesting.
There are, around the country, dozens of places where children can get their poetry published. Nearly every city newspaper has a section in the comics for children”s poems. There are magazines like Highlights and Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty that love to publish submissions by their young readers. Somewhere about high school age, though, those markets dry up, and except for school competitions, there are few markets that are focused specifically on teen (or young adult) poetry.
Enter the Claremont Review. Founded in 1991, Claremont Review is committed to publishing work by poets between the ages of 13 and 19. While the Review”s primary focus is Canadian, the editors welcome submissions from any part of the English speaking world. In 1999, Write Magazine named the Claremont Review “Literary Magazine of the Year”.
Part of the reason that this is included under resources instead of markets is that there is far more to the Claremont Review than a place where teens can submit their work. As an example, any submission accompanied by a SASE will recevie a handwritten response, often with encouragement and suggestions for revisions. The Claremont Review also offers reasonably priced critique services for poetry, short fiction and short plays, as well as one-to-one mentoring. Overall, it”s a valuable resource for young writers who are serious about learning the art and craft of writing poetry.
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