The Queer Issue Is Now

LGBTQ+ Anthology 2026

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The Queer Issue Is Now is a creative anthology of young LGBTQ+ writers and is a part of the It Gets Better Changemakers grant. For more details on the anthology and how to submit, see below.

 

We invite queer youth to submit fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction to this special issue of Polyphony Lit, centered on featuring LGBTQ writing. Selected pieces will appear in a collection distributed to 75 schools nationwide, offering students a set of voices that affirm the necessity and existence of queer futures.

 

The theme for this contest is “All The Stars Look Very Different Today," which is – of course – a nod to David Bowie's "Space Oddity." Bowie's legacy as an icon in queer spaces was always about his continued drive to reinvent and to break the boundaries of performance. We hope that you, too, will break the boundaries of creativity in the work you submit.

 

For this theme, you may consider the many ways queer and trans people have experienced this shift across time, especially moments when the accepted picture of the world no longer matched lived reality. Whether you draw inspiration from the lives of queer figures like Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, and Frida Kahlo, or from broader historical moments such as protests or dehumanizing laws, find a voice that's distinctly your own. Whatever direction you take, connect it to the lyric's core idea: that there is a "before" and an "after," and queer people are almost always writing from inside that moment of transition, naming the difference plainly.

 

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!

 

Guidelines​

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• Submissions will open on December 1st and will remain open until January 31st or until we reach our submission cap of 130 submissions.

• There is no fee to submit.

• Please note that this is a separate submission category from Polyphony Lit Volume 21.​

• If you have already submitted your work to the Volume 20 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 21 category after the seasonal contest is finished.

• Pieces selected for acceptance will be published in Polyphony Lit's "The Queer Issue Is Now" LGBTQ+ Anthology in 2026, and all written pieces will receive constructive critique from our editorial team.

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Writer Qualifications​​

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• 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.

• 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

• Previously published pieces are not eligible for the Claudia Ann Seaman Awards.

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Length

• Poetry must be 80 lines or less.

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

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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.

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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.

• There is a submission cap of 130 submissions, so we may close submissions for the contest before the deadline if we receive 130 submissions. We recommend submitting early, to ensure that you do not miss the deadline.

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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

• 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.

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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