Art Guidelines

Artist Qualifications​

• High school students (aged 14-18) from anywhere in the world are eligible to submit.
• For the art category, we welcome multiple submissions.

Artwork Guidelines​​

• Submitted artwork will be considered for any of the following categories: (1) Cover Art (which will appear both on the website and in print), and (2) Promotional Art (which will appear on social media, on our website, and in our online workshops).
• Images must be a .PNG or .JPG file.
• Images must be at least 2700 x 1800 pixels. Images with low resolution will not be eligible for cover art.
• Images must have a resolution of at least 300 DPI (dots per inch).
• Portrait orientation (6 x 9 inches or equivalent dimensions) is preferred.
• Polyphony means “many voices,” which you can use as inspiration for your design. You are not limited to that theme, as we are looking for the creativity and imagination of your visual art to be a match for the wide-ranging literary works contained in our annual volume.
• We accept simultaneous submissions but if the piece is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately. Only previously unpublished artwork is eligible.
• All submissions must be original and may include drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, or mixed media.

Using Submittable​

• In the submission form, please select "Cover Art" as the genre for your submission.
• 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.
• There is no fee to submit.
• We do not provide feedback on cover art submissions. If your piece is accepted for publication, we will notify you at the close of our submission cycle.
• If you are submitting visual art, you give us permission to publish your work as cover art, t-shirt art, or promotional art on Polyphony Lit's platforms as outlined by Polyphony Lit's Copyright Policies.

Asian & Pacific Islander Month Contest 2025

May 1st - 31st 2025

In celebration of Asian / Pacific Heritage Month, Polyphony Lit is hosting a special contest for submitters with Asian or Pacific Islander background. The theme for the contest is Mythology and the Haunting. For more details on the prize, see below!

Through writing, we construct our own mythology. We immortalise narratives, lives, and feelings. When we create art, we recreate memories, and allow them to coexist together, all within moments of time. And just as how we influence narratives, we too, are shaped by our cultural backgrounds. Asian myths, philosophies, and stories often become convoluted in orientalist depictions by Western media, such as the projection of the colonial gender binary in European interpretations of yin and yang.

This time, we invite you to revisit, and reexamine your own Asian histories. Individual or communal, decades old or centuries. Tell us about your heritage. Subvert your orthodoxy. With folklore as your starting point or vessel, we encourage you to explore your own identities, whether in contradiction or agreement with the ones of your heritage. Find yourself a place among history, or start anew and make your own. The theme of this contest is “mythology and haunting”. 

Consider looking to pre-existing, cross-media examples for inspiration: Andrew Huang’s depiction of queer actualisation through a Chinese deity in his short film Kiss of the Rabbit God; Dazai Osamu’s retellings of Japanese fairy tales in Otogi-zōshi as critiques of Japanese nationalism; Cheng Wei-hao and his return to an exploration of queerness in his Taiwanese film Marry My Dead Body. Meena Kandasamy reframes her relationship in her poem The Seven Stages through Arabic literature’s stages of love. Or, turn away from the symbols of the traditional, and take inspiration from Ocean Vuong’s immortalisation of his own diasporic experience, in the half fiction half memoir mythology of his novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Consider the past, and also consider your own lived experience. What ‘haunts’ you? What do you want to be remembered?

​The theme is open to your interpretation; be creative and have fun with it!

Mandarin Translation:

主题：神话与萦绕

主题阐述：

在书写中，我们构建属于自己的神话。

我们赋予叙事、生命与情感以不朽之力。每一次创作，都是一次对记忆的重构，让过去与现在共处于同一个瞬间。而正如我们可以操控叙事，我们自身也不断被文化背景所塑造。亚洲的神话、哲思与传说，在西方媒介中往往被简化甚至扭曲，比如”阴和阳“在西方语境中被强行套入殖民性的性别二元结构。

这一次，我们邀请你重新回到自己的亚洲历史中去。
无论是你个人的，还是你集体的；是数十年的记忆，还是数世纪的传承。
讲述你的文化根基，你的家族，你的记忆。挑战你所被教导的正统。
你可以从民间传说出发，也可以将它作为一艘船，驶向更深层的自我探索。
你可以质疑、抗争，也可以对话、继承。
在历史的缝隙里找寻自我，或者彻底重写，建立属于你的全新神话。

本次比赛的主题是：“神话与萦绕”。

你可以参考已有的跨媒介作品作为灵感来源：
Andrew Huang 在短片《兔神之吻》中，以中国神祇之名书写酷儿身份的自我实现；
太宰治在《御伽草子》中改写日本童话，用以批判国家主义；
郑伟豪在台片《关于我和鬼变成家人的那件事》中重探酷儿情感与传统仪式的张力；
Meena Kandasamy 在诗《七个阶段》中，以阿拉伯文学中的爱情阶段重新叙述亲密关系的裂变；
或你也可以像 Ocean Vuong 那样，拒绝被既有符号所定义，在《在地球上我们短暂地灿烂》中，
用半回忆录半虚构的方式，创造一部关于离散、家族与创伤的现代神话。

请思考过去，也凝视你自己。什么东西在你的身体里、梦里、语言中挥之不去？

什么在你的心中“萦绕”？

你希望被铭记的，又是什么？

Tamil Translation:

முக்கிய யோசனை: துன்பத்தில் ஆழ்த்தும் புராண மற்றும் நாட்டுப்புறக் கதைகள் 

எழுதுவதன் மூலம், நாம் நமது சொந்த புராணக் கதைகள் உருவாக்குகிறோம்.

நம் யோசனைகள், வாழ்க்கைகள், மற்றும் அனுபவங்களை என்றும் நிலைத்திருக்க செய்கிறோம். நம் கலை உருவாக்கும்போது நினைவுகளை புதிதாக மாற்றுகிறோம். நம் எந்த வகையில் நம் கதைகளை மாற்றுகிறோமோ அதே வகையில் நம் கலாச்சாரத்தினால் மாற்றப்படுகிறோம். ஆசிய புராணங்கள், தத்துவங்கள் மற்றும் கதைகள் பெரும்பாலும் மேற்கத்திய ஆங்கிலேய சித்தரிப்புகளில் சுருண்டு போகின்றன, யின் மற்றும் யாங்கின் ஐரோப்பிய விளக்கங்களில் பாலின இருமை போன்றவை. 

இந்த நேரத்தில், உங்கள் சொந்த ஆசிய வரலாறுகளை மீண்டும் பார்வையிட நாங்கள் உங்களை அழைக்கிறோம்.உங்கள் பாரம்பரியத்தைப் பற்றி எங்களிடம் கூறுங்கள். உங்கள் மரபுவழியை தகர்த்து விடுங்கள். நாட்டுப்புறக் கதைகளை உங்கள் தொடக்கப் புள்ளியாக அல்லது பாத்திரமாக கொண்டு, உங்கள் பாரம்பரியத்துடன் முரண்பாடாக அல்லது உடன்பாடாக உங்கள் சொந்த அடையாளங்களை ஆராய நாங்கள் உங்களை ஊக்குவிக்கிறோம். வரலாற்றில் ஒரு இடத்தைக் கண்டறியவும், அல்லது புதிதாக தொடங்கி உங்கள் சொந்தத்தை உருவாக்கவும்.

இந்தப் போட்டியின் கருப்பொருள் "துன்பத்தில் ஆழ்த்தும் புராண மற்றும் நாட்டுப்புறக் கதைகள் ". முன்பே இருக்கும், குறுக்கு ஊடக உதாரணங்களைப் பாருங்கள்: ஆண்ட்ரூ ஹுவாங்கின் குறும்படமான கிஸ் ஆஃப் தி ராபிட் காட் மூலம் ஒரு சீன தெய்வம் மூலம் பால்புதுமையினர் சேர்க்கை; ஓட்டோகி-சோஷியில் டசாய் ஒசாமுவின் ஜப்பானிய கதைகள்; செங் வெய்-ஹாவோ மற்றும் அவரது திரைப்படம் மேரி மை டெட் பாடி இல் பால்புதுமையினர் பற்றிய ஆய்வுக்கு அவர் திரும்புதல். மீனா கந்தசாமி தனது கவிதையான தி செவன் ஸ்டேஜஸில் அரபு இலக்கியத்தின் காதல் நிலைகள் மூலம் தனது உறவை வடிவமைக்கிறார். அல்லது, பாரம்பரியத்திலிருந்து விலகி, ஓஷன் வூங் தனது சொந்த புலம்பெயர்ந்த அனுபவத்தை அழியாததாக்கியதிலிருந்து உத்வேகம் பெறுங்கள், அவரது நாவலான "ஆன் எர்த் வி ஆர் ப்ரீஃப்லி கார்ஜியஸ்". கடந்த காலம் மற்றும் உங்கள் சொந்த வாழ்ந்த அனுபவத்தையும் கருத்தில் கொள்ளுங்கள்.  உங்கள் மனதில் என்ன தங்கியிருக்கிறது? நீங்கள் எப்படி நினைவில் வைக்கப்பட விரும்புகிறீர்கள்?

We will accept pieces written in English, Mandarin, Tamil, and Korean. 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.

Looking for examples that Polyphony Lit has published already? Then check out On Love, On Psychedelics by Tina Zeng and iceberg / beautiful by Yun-Fei Wang.

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!

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 20.​ Submissions to Polyphony Lit Volume 20 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 20 category, then please do not send the same submission to the Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Contest category.
• If you submit to the Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Contest category first and your work is declined, then you may submit it to the Volume 20 category after the Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Contest is finished.

Writer Qualifications

• High school students 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.
• Works may be written in English, Mandarin, Korean, or Tamil. 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.
• 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 Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage 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 20
• Eligibility for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards
• Editorial feedback from the Contest Judge
• Social media posts announcing the winners
• An honorary emblem next to the published work on the website
• 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