The Student Publishing Program

Read last year's questions that teen writers needed answered the most - and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s answers to them!

Read the teen poems we’ve already begun publishing alongside poems by Pulitzer Prize-winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser!

The Student Publishing Program has been selected as one of the top 12 creative writing programs in the country. Learn why in our program background section.

Get free access to original writing and publishing support from many of our nation's top educators, experts and writers, including Poet Laureates and six Pulitzer Prize-winners. Free audio, video and Podcasts of poetry slams and interview epiphanies.

See why so many high schools nationwide have already sent written participation interest for the upcoming school year.

The online literary magazine of Massachusetts' Lexington High School, where we've successfully piloted SPP for five years.

Questions or comments? Get in touch with us here.

Ted Kooser

At the Cancer Clinic

She is being helped toward the open door
that leads to the examining rooms
by two young women I take to be her sisters.
Each bends to the weight of an arm
and steps with the straight, tough bearing
of courage. At what must seem to be
a great distance, a nurse holds the door,
smiling and calling encouragement.
How patient she is in the crisp white sails
of her clothes. The sick woman
peers from under her funny knit cap
to watch each foot swing scuffing forward
and take its turn under her weight.
There is no restlessness or impatience
or anger anywhere in sight. Grace
fills the clean mold of this moment
and all the shuffling magazines grow still.

Derrick A.

Sundays and Autumn Days

Sunday is my guilty pleasure
I hate it so much
As it’s right next door to Monday
Whose frigid botox face stares grimly into mine

Yet Sundays are so much fun
They’re always so languid and timeless
The sun slips across the waterslide sky
As I look beyond the looking glass

Sundays sneak up on you
Never screeching boo! like a nonsense child
They just come and go
Like a beautiful stranger that’s but a flicker in the eye

Autumn days do much the same
They come in burning regalia
Reeking of icy rain and humus
Even though the air still ripples outside

People are more attuned to Autumn than
any other season
Spring is too slow and not fashionably so
Summer and Winter are when the radio
comes on and it’s too loud
Your heart explodes and it’s not good

Autumn Days and Sundays are the
perfect combination
The perfect visitors
They know when to leave
They quietly watch the sun turn
corners and speak only when warranted

Derrick A. is a high school student.

Sara Harari

Black Ice

She slipped on the black ice.
It tripped
her
up
and she went sliding.

She collected her senses.
wiped herself off
readjusted her hat

She turned to look at it.
smooth
no cracks at all
not one.
The perfect surface reflected the sun, shining it right into her eyes.
blinking at the light,
she turned and gazed beyond.

On the way home, she noted the labyrinth of cracks coating the once smooth surface,
shattering
its once cool demeanor.

Sara Harari’s poem was first published in Lexington High School’s Online Literary Journal, 2:25 PM, by The Student Publishing Program, a free creative writing program that gives students the confidence and skills to write for a wider audience, and then publishes and promotes student books with 100% of the profits going back to each school.

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