Category: News

Submissions for Issue 16 are now open!
We accept poetry, short stories, flash fiction, art, photography and non-fiction pieces aimed at a Young Adult audience.
We accept submissions from teenagers (13-18) and from those aged 19 plus.
We are proud to be supported by the Arts Council. Information on contributor fees is listed on our website.

Introducing our writers, reviewers and artists for Issue 15!

As always, we have an amazing selection of fiction and artwork to lose yourself in and some fabulous reviews of the latest teen and YA books that you can add to your ‘To Be Read’ piles.

What to expect from Issue 15: 

💜A platform for teen creative expression, supporting young artists by elevating their work

📖Short stories, flash fiction and poems by teenage and YA authors

🪁20 pages of book reviews to help chose your latest YA read

🌅The winners of our ‘Daylight’ Short Story competition, sponsored by Tertulia Books

🪻Our beautiful cover: ‘Flower Market Girls’ by Ana Graça

🟣An interview with Zainab Boladale, author of Braids Take A Day

☂️Our book club discussion of Wise Creatures by Deirdre Sullivan

🎆Intriguing art in a variety of media

💟Romantasy: What is behind the new phenomenon? : an essay by Méabh McDonnell

The perfect journal for teens who love to read, as well as older YA enthusiasts.

Issue 15 will be posted the first week of March.

We also offer subscriptions to schools and libraries – email us at paperlanternsjournal@gmail.com to find out more

✨Issue 15 Cover Reveal ✨

We’re delighted to reveal our cover for Issue 15, available 1st March!
Cover art: Flower Market Girls by Ana Graça
Designer: Eleanor Brayden

We’re sharing our contributors and launch details this week, so watch this space…

Filled with art and writing, including our author interview with @zainab_boladale , article on all things Romantasy by Méabh McDonnell, and the winners of our short story competition with Tertulia Books.

As always, half our contributors are teenagers, making sure we platform young people’s voices!

Calling all teachers!

Do you have readers, writers and artists in your class that you think would be interested in being involved with Paper Lanterns? We are putting together a newsletter for teachers and other youth workers to help their students get involved.

Paper Lanterns is a great addition to any school library. With art, short stories, poetry, reviews and essays, there is something for any teenager. You can buy a subscription on our shop, or email us at paperlanternsjournal@gmail.com if you need a purchase order.

Still on the fence? You can check out past work here: From The Archives

Sign up to our teacher newsletter for more info –  https://forms.gle/4CxZJuSmyGfFADRR8

We are open for submissions for Issue 15!

We’re looking for creative writing, non-fiction, art & photography.

Please take a look at our guidelines, as we’ve made some changes

All submissions close September 19th.

We can’t wait to view your work!

Issues 1-7 of Paper Lanterns are now available to purchase as downloadable PDFs!

We hope this will give you a flavour of our past issues, as well as save international postage costs for our readers who live abroad. There’s some real gems in past issues – we can’t wait for you to explore them in this new form!

Our next issue is going to be published in May 2024, and we are looking for a piece of cover art!

It could be a painting, a photography, a drawing, a scan of textile art… anything you think would make a gorgeous, eye-catching piece.

You can have a look at our past covers to get an idea of what we like, although we’re open to something completely different too.

If you’ve created something for a school art class that you’re really proud of, please send it to us! You don’t have to create something for this competition, although you’re very welcome to.

You do not need to include text in your art if you don’t want to – our designer will create the cover using your image.

With the support of the Arts Council, we are able to pay a fee of €85 to our art contributors, and €100 to our cover artist. This will be paid via PayPal, or a book token if you are under 16.

Closes 16th February at 6pm

Please be sure to read and adhere to these guidelines carefully, or your submission will not be considered.

• You must be 13+ years old to submit.
• Please label your file correctly with the title of your piece, e.g. “Sunrise.jpeg” (do not include your name in the file, and please do not submit your file as “image2938.jpeg”).
• Please fill out the subject of the email: Art – Title 
• Please include your full name in the body of the email (feel free to include a short cover letter introducing yourself and a little bit about your work).
• Please send your work to: submit.paperlanterns@gmail.com
• You will receive an auto-reply email, requesting you to fill out a Google form.  Fill out the form for each individual piece. The form can also be found here.
• Due to copyright laws, we cannot accept work that is a copy of someone else’s intellectual property or work. The piece must be original and owned by you.
  • For example, if you do a drawing of an image you found online, we cannot accept it, but if you draw from what’s in front of you, from an image you took or from your imagination, we can accept it. If you have any questions on this please email paperlanternsjournal@gmail.com
• We do not accept work that has been published elsewhere. We accept simultaneous submissions, but we ask you to notify us immediately if your submission has been accepted elsewhere.
• You are welcome to make multiple submissions. We will accept SIX art submissions.
• While we are very open to the content of the submissions, we will not accept any pieces that are prejudiced in nature. We will not accept pieces that include, but are not limited to: sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or classist content.
• We reserve the right to chose a cover from other submissions, a cover may not be selected from this competition.
• If you have any questions, please contact paperlanternsjournal@gmail.com