Literary Magazines

Polyphony Lit is by far the most recommended literary magazine to submit to due to the extensive feedback they provide on each submission (regardless of acceptance status, you will receive two Junior Editors’ feedback and one Senior Editor’s feedback). However, turnaround and feedback can be notoriously slow. ~5% acceptance
Crashtest is a “biannual online magazine founded and run by the creative writing students at the Fine Arts Center, a public arts high school in Greenville, South Carolina, so that students in high schools all over the country will have a place to publish work that tests limits, asks questions, rejects the easy answers, risks obliteration, believes in failure, is suspicious of scripted success.” ~28.57% acceptance
Eunoia Review is a “Singapore-based online literary journal committed to sharing the fruits of ‘beautiful thinking’. Each day, [they] publish four new pieces of writing for your reading pleasure.” Eunoia Review generally responds within 24 hours and is run by Ian Chung. ~28.93% acceptanceAster Lit is an international youth literary community founded by young writers. ~4% acceptance
The Dawn Review - however, this is a magazine open to all authors of varying ages, so it can be more competitive. ~3% acceptance
Chinchilla Lit is “an online literary magazine for young writers. Here at CHINCHILLA LIT, we care about honesty, courage, and personality. We seek work that we can relate to and cherish because it is so sheerly you. The literary world out there can be daunting, but we’re here to show you otherwise.” ~25% acceptanceIt is super important to read widely and broadly, and these literary magazines can provide lots of inspiration. You can submit to these as well, but keep in mind they are highly competitive markets:
https://sundoglit.com/
https://okaydonkeymag.com/
https://theoffingmag.com/
https://www.smokelong.com/
https://www.gasherpress.com/
http://www.theadroitjournal.org/
https://www.upthestaircase.org/
https://www.poetlore.com/
https://www.theshorepoetry.org/
http://www.birdfeastmagazine.com/
http://www.softblow.org/
http://thediagram.com/
http://pankmagazine.com/
http://www.freezeraypoetry.com/
http://bodyliterature.com/
https://rustandmoth.com/
http://www.rattle.com/
http://strangehorizons.com/
http://diodepoetry.com/
http://www.muzzlemagazine.com/
http://www.thrushpoetryjournal.com/
http://waxwingmag.org/

Programs

The following is a list of competitive but reputable summer programs for writers, listed from highest competitiveness to slightly less so. All will give you a great experience.
Iowa Young Writers’ Studio. Their 2-week residential summer program is HIGHLY selective with about a ~7% acceptance rate. From their website: “Admissions decisions are based almost entirely on the writing sample.” https://iyws.clas.uiowa.edu/how-to-apply/summer-residential-program
Kenyon Young Writers’ Workshop https://kenyonreview.org/event/young-writers-summer-residential-workshops/; also highly competitive. ~8% acceptance rate.
Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship https://theadroitjournal.org/about/mentorship/
SUNHOUSE Summer Writing Mentorship https://sunhousementorship.com/
Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference https://new.sewanee.edu/sywc/
Juniper Summer Writing Institute https://juniperinstitute.umasscreate.net/
Incandescent Summer Studio https://www.theincandescentstudio.org/If you are interested in a specific college/campus/location, you can look into their websites, as lots of colleges/universities run their own pre-college summer writing programs (Columbia, Brown, etc.), which are probably excellent, albeit less well-known.If you would like to try your hand at writing a novel, in November, a free worldwide program called National Novel Writing Month http://nanowrimo.org/ takes place, where participants write a novel in a month. WordUP! will partner with the Westfield Memorial Library in NJ to provide incentives and gifts for writers with the highest word count during the month of November (coming soon!).

Competitions

Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards http://www.artandwriting.org/ is by far the biggest writing and arts competition for middle through high schoolers. WordUP! will offer a free writing workshop specifically tailored to Scholastic submissions (coming soon!).
YoungArts https://www.youngarts.org/ is quite competitive as well.
Foyle Young Poets http://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/foyle-young-poets-of-the-year-award/ is an awesome one.These ones are the most significant because they offer travel opportunities and cash prizes. There’s some smaller contests too that are very good, and may also offer some cash prizes and publication opportunities:
Leonard L. Milberg High School Poetry Prize https://arts.princeton.edu/about/opportunities/high-school-contests/poetry-contest/
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize http://www.kenyonreview.org/contests/patricia-grodd/
The Adroit Prizes http://www.theadroitjournal.org/adroit-prizes/
Claudia Ann Seaman https://www.polyphonylit.org/claudia-ann-seaman-awards
The Claremont Review Contest http://www.theclaremontreview.ca/#!contest/c1yh2
Gigantic Sequins http://www.giganticsequins.com/teens.html
JUST POETRY!!! http://www.justpoetry.org/
Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest https://www.hollins.edu/academics/majors-minors/english-creative-writing-major/nancy-thorp-poetry-contest/
River of Words http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/center-for-environmental-literacy/river-of-wordsWhen submitting to contests and competitions, remember that writing is truly such a subjective and personal venture, and sometimes, competitions can be toxic.