Claudia Ann Seaman Award
Celebrating 20 Years
2004 - 2024
Since our founding in 2004, we've received submissions from students in 84 countries and 52 U.S. states/ territories. Our student editors have given feedback to every submission, over 21,000 and counting!
Polyphony Lit couldn't exist without your support.
Learn how you can help us continue to inspire and cultivate young writers!
What People are Saying About Us
Volume 19: Fall | Winter | Spring
Initially, I contemplated describing these pieces with ubiquitous themes: love, loss, beauty, culture, coming of age, change. Such ideas are, of course, present in this issue. Yet attempting to encompass these writers’ words with umbrella themes simply doesn’t seem to suffice. What I will say, though, is this: the pieces you see here are constantly working to detach the body from the self, jigsawing said puzzle pieces into something novel and astonishing.
- Grace Marie Liu
Letter from the Editors-in-Chief
Claudia Ann Seaman Awards
for Young Writers
The Claudia Ann Seaman Awards for Young Writers were created by the Seaman family in memory of their daughter and sister, a young poet. The CAS Award acknowledges excellence in teen writing in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
Nominees are selected each year by our editorial staff from the works that have been accepted for publication. A distinguished panel of professional published authors choose one winner each in poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction, to receive a $200 cash award. Two honorable mentions are also selected in each genre category.
Polyphony Lit is the global online literary platform for high school students. We invite high school students worldwide to submit creative writing, join our editorial staff, write blog posts, take workshops, and grow into leadership roles. Because developing young writers is central to our mission, our editors provide feedback on every submission.
Homepage Art by Tony Fitzpatrick, Julian Riccobon, Yuchen Shi, Maggie Yang, Faith Zhang, Sibusiso (Sbu) Macamba, Alex Riccobon, Emma Chen, Cecilia Yang, and Ayah al-Masyabi.
"Strangling Blue" by Maggie Yang was previously published in The Adroit Journal, Issue 42.