Claudia Ann Seaman Award
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 submitted to Polyphony Lit and accepted for publication. A distinguished panel of professional 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.

Awards are selected each summer. Submissions that were published in Polyphony Lit's Fall Issue, Winter Issue, or Spring Issue during the preceding school year (September-May) are eligible for consideration. Please go to our Submit Page to learn more.

About

Claudia Ann Seaman

My memories of my sister Claudia remain sharp and clear, as does my grief, more than twenty years after her death. Those of you born after I began missing Claudia will find it difficult to imagine that even though I’ve read hundreds of submissions to the award that carries my sister’s name each year, every year’s entries are fresh and deeply gratifying. That is what art does. It transcends everyday life and time. Art reaches far beneath the surface, and illuminates what is unchanging and universal in the human experience. Those of us who love literature have found a soul-sustaining passion and wellspring of knowledge and inspiration, pleasure, wit, and beauty.

The Seaman family established the award in memory of my sister, a young poet, with the generous support of the Community Foundation of Dutchess County, in our hometown, Poughkeepsie, New York. We are now thrilled to partner in this exciting endeavor with Chicago-based Polyphony Lit, a student-run, international literary magazine for high school writers and editors.

Members of Polyphony Lit's editorial staff will read and comment on submissions to the Seaman Award for Young Writers with the goal of nurturing the writing community, connecting young writers and editors, and enabling young writers to reach a wider audience. Our hope is that participants will better understand the impact their writing has on readers, and that the close scrutiny of editors will help writers perceive greater possibility in their work. The winners of the awards are selected from the print volume of Polyphony Lit by published authors in each genre and are announced with the publication of each issue.

Thank you for participating in the Claudia Ann Seaman Award for Young Writers, and thank you for keeping the profound and transforming arts of reading and writing vital.

Donna Seaman | Senior Editor, Booklist

Claudia Ann Seaman Awards Page Art by Julian Riccobon, Maggie Yang, Michelle Jin, Alex Riccobon, Sean Lee, and Lauren Bartel.