Japanese Heritage Contest 2026

May 1st - 31st 2026

  日本語訳

In celebration of Asian & Pacific Heritage Month, Polyphony Lit is hosting a special contest for submitters with Japanese background. The theme for the contest is Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself: Channeling Empowerment Through Japanese Culture. For more details on the prize, see below!

In his 1994 Nobel Prize acceptance speech “Japan, the Ambiguous, and Myself,” Oe Kenzaburo discusses the ambiguities, margins, and intersections that constituted the Japanese identity during the turbulent decade. “What kind of identity as a Japanese should I seek?” he asks in his speech. “As one with a peripheral, marginal, and off-center existence in the world, I would like to seek how—with what I hope is a modest, decent, and humanist contribution—I can be of some use in a cure and reconciliation of mankind.” This disillusionment with Japanese society in the 1990s, as well as a strong emphasis on democracy and stronger diplomatic relations throughout Asia, make their way into his work—a reflection of the blur between his identity as a Japanese writer and his vision of what could be possible.

For API Month 2026, we’re holding this bonus contest to ask you about your own ambiguities. What intersections between your identity and the world around you remain vague? What questions about your heritage remain unanswered? How does your cultural background reconcile tensions and challenges you encounter? Polyphony Lit wants to see you write about culture as empowerment, change, and growth. Explore the undefined and show us what you discover. As you write, we encourage you to explore not only your cultural background but your style of writing, as well: you may take inspiration from Oe with “grotesque realism” prose, or Haruki Murakami’s surrealist style, or Kimiko Hahn’s evocative verse. There are no limits to the creative expression we seek from you.

We will accept pieces written in English and Japanese. If your piece is written primarily in one of these languages, but also features brief words or phrases written in another language, then we will certainly consider multilingual pieces like this, but please keep in mind that our contest readers will only be able to provide English translations for Japanese. For multilingual words and phrases, you are welcome to provide English translations of your own as footnotes or as part of the context in the piece.

Contest Guidelines

• Submissions will open on May 1st and will remain open until May 31st or until we reach our submission cap of 200 submissions.
• Please note that this is a separate submission category from Polyphony Lit Volume 22.​ Submissions to Polyphony Lit Volume 22 will receive feedback from the editors, but for the seasonal contests, only the winning submissions will receive feedback from the judge.
• If you have already submitted your work to the Volume 22 category, then please do not send the same submission to the contest category.
• If you submit to the contest category first and your work is declined, then you may submit it to the Volume 22 category after the contest is finished.

Writer Qualifications

• High school students aged 14-18 who identify as Japanese, Japanese American, or of Japanese heritage are eligible to submit. If you do not fall under these demographics, but are still interested in submitting to Polyphony Lit, then head over to our Volume 22 Prose and Poetry submissions category!
• We do not accept submissions from any editors who currently serve on the staff of Polyphony Lit.
• Works may be written in English or Japanese. If your piece is written primarily in one of these languages, but also features brief words or phrases written in another language, then we will certainly consider multilingual pieces like this, but please keep in mind that our contest readers will only be able to provide English translations for Japanese. For multilingual words and phrases, you are welcome to provide English translations of your own as footnotes or as part of the context in the piece.
• Submit a maximum of three pieces.
• If submitting multiple pieces, please upload as separate submissions. Multiple pieces submitted in a single document will be withdrawn, and you will be asked to resubmit your pieces separately.
• We accept simultaneous submissions and work that has been published elsewhere. If submitting previously published work, please send a message in Submittable noting where and when your work has been published, and if it is eligible for republication. If it is accepted for publication elsewhere after submitting to Polyphony Lit, please notify us immediately but do not withdraw your submission if you are still interested in publication at Polyphony Lit. If we accept a previously published submission for publication, we will acknowledge the place of the original publication.
• Previously published pieces are not eligible for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards

Length

• Poetry must be 80 lines or less.
• Fiction and creative nonfiction must be 1,800 words or less.

Formatting​

• Do not put your name on the piece, as all work is blind juried.
• Submissions longer than one page should have the page number inserted at the top (right or left side) of every page, as it would help our Judge specify the location for their commentary.
• We accept submission in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats.
• We prefer common conventions:                                       
• Color: Black & white
• Font Size: 12 pt throughout, including titles
• Font Type: Times or Times New Roman
• Margins: 1-inch at the top and bottom, and 1.25 inch at the left and right. One space after periods. There should be no extra returns after paragraphs unless you have a meaningful reason for the extra space

Using Submittable

• Please upload submissions through Submittable. We do not accept email submissions or hard copies via mail.
• Upload only one piece per submission file; to submit more than one piece, make more than one submission file.
• Submissions for this contest are free.
• There is a submission cap of 200 submissions, so we may close submissions for the contest before the deadline if we receive 200 submissions. We recommend submitting early, to ensure that you do not miss the deadline.

Prize

There will be one winner and two finalists. The winners/finalists will receive:

• Publication in Polyphony Lit Volume 22
• Eligibility for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards
• Editorial feedback from the Contest Judge
• A full scholarship for Polyphony Lit’s "How to be a Literary Editor" course. Upon completion of the course, students will be eligible to join the editorial staff of Polyphony Lit!

Please note that only the three winners will receive feedback from the judge.

Additional Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction

At Polyphony Lit, we look for creative nonfiction pieces that are written in the style of short personal memoirs. We are looking for pieces that are informal, flexible in form, and most importantly, personal. Personal discovery is the keystone of a personal essay. Self-revelation, human experiences, humor, and flexibility of form are all aspects that we look for in pieces we publish as creative non-fiction.

• We do not look for op-ed pieces, critical analyses, research papers, or academic essays.
• We would advise reading some samples of our work, in order to understand the material that we publish. Here are some samples of creative nonfiction that we have published:
• Memories of the Boy I Didn't Know
• responses to love
• Holiday in a Burning City

Polyphony Lit Summer Contest 2026:

Home

The theme for this contest is “Home.” For more details on the contest prize, see below.

We write to grasp a better idea of who we are. The things around us, the people we surround ourselves with, the places we live in. Writing is all about the individual in attempts to unveil our true selves and what shapes them. So, what is home to you?

We encourage you to take a moment to reflect and really think about what home means. Is it the place you live in? Your local community? A person, a feeling, or maybe even a pet? Maybe home is the ballet studio next door, or your old elementary school classroom. Take a walk outside and explore the different feelings that come around when you think of home. Consider what home truly means and why your home is your home. 

This theme is open to your interpretation: be creative, and have fun with it!

Interested in learning how to write poetry with experienced writers and editors from around the the globe? Our poetry workshop, Around the World of Poetry in 80 Days is open for registrations on a rolling basis.

Summer Contest Guidelines

• Submissions will open on June 1st and will remain open until August 31st. The first 200 submissions to the contest are free, but the contest will not close entirely after we reach 200 submissions. Once the contest collects 200 submissions, there will be a $4 submission fee for additional submissions, but the contest category will remain open.
• Please note that this is a separate submission category from Polyphony Lit Volume 22.​ Submissions that were submitted to Polyphony Lit Volume 22 will receive feedback from the editors, but for the seasonal contests, only the winning submissions will receive feedback from the judge.
• If you have already submitted your work to the Volume 22 category, then please do not send the same submission to the contest category.
• If you submit to the contest category first and your work is declined, then you may submit it to the Volume 22 category or future contests after this contest is finished.

Writer Qualifications

• High school students (aged 14-18) from anywhere in the world are eligible to submit.
• We do not accept submissions from any editors who currently serve on the staff of Polyphony Lit.
• Submit a maximum of three pieces.
• If submitting multiple pieces, please upload as separate submissions. Multiple pieces submitted in a single document may be withdrawn, and you will be asked to resubmit your pieces separately.
• We accept simultaneous submissions and work that has been published elsewhere. If submitting previously published work, please send a message in Submittable noting where and when your work has been published, and if it is eligible for republication. If it is accepted for publication elsewhere after submitting to Polyphony Lit, please notify us immediately but do not withdraw your submission if you are still interested in publication at Polyphony Lit. If we accept a previously published submission for publication, we will acknowledge the place of the original publication.
• Previously published pieces are not eligible for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards

Length

• Poetry must be 80 lines or less.
• Fiction and creative nonfiction must be 1,800 words or less.

Formatting

• Do not put your name on the piece, as all work is blind juried.
• We accept submission in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats.
• We prefer common conventions:                                             
  • Color: Black & white
  • Font Size: 12 pt throughout, including titles
  • Font Type: Times or Times New Roman
  • Margins: 1-inch at the top and bottom, and 1.25 inch at the left and right. One space after periods. There should be no extra returns after paragraphs unless you have a meaningful reason for the extra space.

      

Using Submittable

• Please upload submissions through Submittable. We do not accept email submissions or hard copies via mail.
• Upload only one piece per submission file; to submit more than one piece, make more than one submission file.
• The first 200 submissions for this contest are free. Once the contest collects 200 submissions, there will be a $4 submission fee for additional submissions, but the contest category will remain open. For this reason, we recommend submitting early.

Prize

There will be one winner and two finalists. The winners/finalists will receive:

• Publication in Polyphony Lit Volume 22
• Eligibility for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards (if work is previously unpublished)
• Editorial feedback from the Contest Judge
• A full scholarship for Polyphony Lit’s "How to be a Literary Editor" course. Upon completion of the course, students will be eligible to join the editorial staff of Polyphony Lit!
• Please note that only the three winners will receive feedback from the Judge.​

Additional Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction​

• At Polyphony Lit, we look for creative nonfiction pieces that are written in the style of short personal memoirs. We are looking for pieces that are informal, flexible in form, and most importantly, personal. Personal discovery is the keystone of a personal essay. Self-revelation, human experiences, humor, and flexibility of form are all aspects that we look for in pieces we publish as creative non-fiction.
• We do not look for op-ed pieces, critical analyses, research papers, or academic essays.
• We would advise reading some samples of our work, in order to understand the material that we publish. Here are some samples of creative nonfiction that we have published:
• Memories of the Boy I Didn't Know
• responses to love
• Holiday in a Burning City

Pride Month Contest 2026

June 1st - 30th 2026

The theme for this contest is “Happy Endings.” For more details on the contest prize, see below.

Queerness has always been entangled with tragedy, both in the real world and in literature. From the Hays Code of 1934 to the “bury your gays” trope, the LGBTQIA+ community is forced to fight an uphill battle to have positive representation in mainstream media. As they do in real life, queer people in fiction constantly struggle with overwhelming hardship and heartbreak. A “happily ever after” is almost unheard of in LGBTQIA+ stories. 

The abundance of tragic queer narratives perpetuates the idea that queer people can never be truly happy. It is hard to turn away from our real-life issues only to see even more of them in our books. Awareness of these issues is important, but it is equally crucial that we recognize joy alongside sadness. 

Let’s put down our books about queer suffering for a moment and celebrate our dreams. What do you hope for in the future? Some seek acceptance from their families. Others want to love freely without caring about societal pressures. Envision your own “happily ever after,” then put it into words. Writing about a better future is the first step to making it a reality. 

Remember, the theme is open to your interpretation – be creative and have fun with it!

Looking for examples that Polyphony Lit has published already? Then check out "Just watching ducks with you" by Annette Lin and "i pray to angry goddesses" by Giya Agarwal.

Interested in honing your poetry-writing skills for the contest? Then try taking our poetry workshop, Around the World of Poetry in 80 Days. This workshop will help you to brainstorm, draft, and revise poems of your own! Interested in becoming an editor for Polyphony Lit? Take our editorial training course and join the staff!

Contest Guidelines

• Submissions will open on June 1st and will remain open until June 30th or until we reach our submission cap of 200 submissions.
• Please note that this is a separate submission category from Polyphony Lit Volume 22.​ Submissions to Polyphony Lit Volume 22 will receive feedback from the editors, but for the seasonal contests, only the winning submissions will receive feedback from the judge.
• If you have already submitted your work to the Volume 22 category, then please do not send the same submission to the seasonal contest category.
• If you submit to the seasonal contest category first and your work is declined, then you may submit it to the Volume 22 category after the seasonal contest is finished.

Writer Qualifications

• High school students who identify as LGBTQIA+ are eligible to submit. We understand that the LGBTQIA+ community covers a wide spectrum of identities, so we hope that you will not be limited by this term in any way. If you do not fall under these demographics, you are still welcome to submit to our upcoming seasonal contests. A new slate of contests will open in July 2026.
• We do not accept submissions from any editors who currently serve on the staff of Polyphony Lit.
• Submit a maximum of three pieces.
• If submitting multiple pieces, please upload as separate submissions. Multiple pieces submitted in a single document may be withdrawn, and you may be asked to resubmit your pieces separately.
• We accept simultaneous submissions and work that has been published elsewhere. If submitting previously published work, please send a message in Submittable noting where and when your work has been published, and if it is eligible for republication. If it is accepted for publication elsewhere after submitting to Polyphony Lit, please notify us immediately but do not withdraw your submission if you are still interested in publication at Polyphony Lit. If we accept a previously published submission for publication, we will acknowledge the place of the original publication.
• Previously published pieces are not eligible for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards

Length

• Poetry must be 80 lines or less.
• Fiction and creative nonfiction must be 1,800 words or less.

Formatting​

• Do not put your name on the piece, as all work is blind juried.
• Submissions longer than one page should have the page number inserted at the top (right or left side) of every page, as it would help our Judge specify the location for their commentary.
• We accept submission in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats.
• We prefer common conventions:                                                  
  • Color: Black & white
  • Font Size: 12 pt throughout, including titles
  • Font Type: Times or Times New Roman
  • Margins: 1-inch at the top and bottom, and 1.25 inch at the left and right. One space after periods. There should be no extra returns after paragraphs unless you have a meaningful reason for the extra space.   

      

Using Submittable

• Please upload submissions through Submittable. We do not accept email submissions or hard copies via mail.
• Upload only one piece per submission file; to submit more than one piece, make more than one submission file.
• Submissions for this contest are free.
• There is a submission cap of 200 submissions, so we may close submissions for the contest before the deadline if we receive 200 submissions. We recommend submitting early, to ensure that you do not miss the deadline.

Prize

There will be one winner and two finalists. The winners/finalists will receive:

• Publication in Polyphony Lit Volume 22
• Eligibility for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards
• Editorial feedback from the Contest Judge
• A full scholarship for Polyphony Lit’s "How to be a Literary Editor" course. Upon completion of the course, students will be eligible to join the editorial staff of Polyphony Lit!
• Please note that only the three winners will receive feedback from the judge.   

Additional Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction

At Polyphony Lit, we look for creative nonfiction pieces that are written in the style of short personal memoirs. We are looking for pieces that are informal, flexible in form, and most importantly, personal. Personal discovery is the keystone of a personal essay. Self-revelation, human experiences, humor, and flexibility of form are all aspects that we look for in pieces we publish as creative non-fiction.

• We do not look for op-ed pieces, critical analyses, research papers, or academic essays.
• We would advise reading some samples of our work, in order to understand the material that we publish. Here are some samples of creative nonfiction that we have published:
• Memories of the Boy I Didn't Know
• responses to love
• Holiday in a Burning City

Voices Blog: Piecing Together Indigenous Identity Series for 2027

June 10th-September 30th

Polyphony Lit is now open to submissions for a Voices Blog series centered around indigenous creators called "Piecing Together Indigenous Identity"

Indigenous identity is not a rigid monolith, but a vibrant mosaic. It is shaped by a variety of sources, whether that is a geographic affinity, a community tradition, or a fragment of a story passed down throughout generations. Historically, colonialism has acted as a force of disruption, scattering our traditions and fragmenting our histories. Yet, indigenous people hold the power to gather these scattered pieces and weave them back together. This blog series invites indigenous creators to reflect on the small moments, memories, and fragments of daily life that contribute to their understanding of native identity. Whether you are reflecting on traditional indigenous myths, history and geography, or your own personal experiences, we would love to hear from indigenous youth who are passionate about art as a medium for decolonization and cultural resistance.

This is an open call for poetry, fiction, CNF, nonfiction articles, and visual art. We are seeking work created by indigenous youth age 12-25.

Selected works will be featured in the blog series, which we plan to launch in 2027, if we receive enough submissions.

This submission opportunity is separate from Polyphony Lit's seasonal issues. Submissions for this category will be considered for blog publication and not for publication in our seasonal issues. Constructive critique will not be provided for submission to this blog series.

To read some works from our previous blog series, please check out "Love in the Time of Banned Books" and "Wake Up, the War Is Here."

Blog Series Submission Guidelines

• Submissions will open on June 10th 2026 and will remain open until at least September 30th 2026 or until we reach our submission cap of 200 submissions.
• Please note that this is a separate submission category from Polyphony Lit's Volume 20 and Polyphony Lit's seasonal contests.​ Constructive critique will not be provided for submission to this blog series.

Writer Qualifications​

• We are seeking work created by indigenous youth age 12-25. For ease of reference, we roughly define this as writers who identify as North American Indigenous Peoples (Eg: Navajo nation, Blackfeet tribe, Native Village, Nome Eskimo Community, First Nations, etc). and writers who identify as Central / South America Indigenous Peoples (for example: Amerindian, K’iche’, Yucatec, Miskitos, Quechua, Chibcha, etc). However, we understand that people of Indigenous descent often come from many different backgrounds, so we hope that you will not be limited in any way by these categories.
• Works may be written in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. If your piece is written primarily in one of these languages, but also features brief words or phrases written in another language, then we will certainly consider multilingual pieces like this, but please keep in mind that our contest readers will only be able to provide English translations for the languages listed above. For multilingual words and phrases, you are welcome to provide English translations of your own as footnotes or as part of the context in the piece. If you would like to submit a piece written entirely in another language, then please email julian@polyphonylit.org to inquire if any our editors would be open to provide translations in another language.
• If you are fluent in an indigenous language and interested in volunteering as a translator in order to open up this opportunity to even more indigenous submitters, please also email julian@polyphonylit.org.
• Submit a maximum of three pieces.
• If submitting multiple pieces, please upload as separate submissions. Multiple pieces submitted in a single document may be withdrawn, and you may be asked to resubmit your pieces separately.
• We accept simultaneous submissions and work that has been published elsewhere. If submitting previously published work, please send a message in Submittable noting where and when your work has been published, and if it is eligible for republication. If it is accepted for publication elsewhere after submitting to Polyphony Lit, please notify us immediately but do not withdraw your submission if you are still interested in publication at Polyphony Lit. If we accept a previously published submission for publication, we will acknowledge the place of the original publication.
• Submissions for the blog series are not eligible for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards.

Length

• Poetry must be 80 lines or less.
• Prose must be 1,800 words or less.

Formatting

• Do not put your name on the piece, as all work is blind juried.
• Submissions longer than one page should have the page number inserted at the top (right or left side) of every page, as it would help our Judge specify the location for their commentary.
• We accept submission in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats.
• We prefer common conventions:                                             
  • Color: Black & white
  • Font Size: 12 pt throughout, including titles
  • Font Type: Times or Times New Roman
  • Margins: 1-inch at the top and bottom, and 1.25 inch at the left and right. One space after periods. There should be no extra returns after paragraphs unless you have a meaningful reason for the extra space. 

   

Using Submittable

• Please upload submissions through Submittable. We do not accept email submissions or hard copies via mail.
• Upload only one piece per submission file; to submit more than one piece, make more than one submission file.
• Submissions are free.
• There is a submission cap of 200 submissions, so we may close submissions for the opportunity before the deadline if we receive 200 submissions. We recommend submitting early, to ensure that you do not miss the deadline.