Our Editorial Philosophy

 

In the service of our Mission and Beliefs, we ask our editors to adopt the Polyphony Lit philosophy, which aims to be both encouraging and constructive to emerging writers. We ask our editors to:

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• Believe each writer's words are valuable.

• Be committed to one aim: helping the author write the best poem, story, or essay they can write.

• Avoid a cookie-cutter approach to reading for acquisition (editing with an eye toward publication). Our student editors hail from all over the world and represent a great variety of cultures and literary tastes which help us create a magazine that we hope will be reflective of the world at large.

• Give clear and precise feedback about how a work succeeds and fails.

• Strive to find successes buried in the work of the least experienced, least schooled, and least polished writers.

• Constantly work to acquire more knowledge of literary devices, narrative elements, and poetry forms, which are tools to skillfully encourage richness and clarity.

• Learn to recognize good writing.

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