Polyphony H.S.Advice for Poets & Writers

Write your best story.
Revise it.
Make sure you’re happy with every word.
Show it to someone who knows what they’re doing and who isn’t related to you. (Many of us have relatives who think we’re the best living authors).
Revise your story again.
Send us your best work. We appreciate careful work. If you’re not happy with every word, fix it and send it to us when you’re happy with your story.
Start reading as writers. As you read, ask yourself questions such as: What does the author accomplish with this dialogue? Shift in point of view? Action? Movement in plot? etc.
Keep it clean. No erotica. Please. We won’t be horrified, appalled, shocked, or offended by profanity, but we will ask ourselves, What does the author lose or gain with this language? If you want to create despicable characters, there are cleverer ways to manage this.
Regarding First Drafts: Please don’t send us your first draft. Read over your work carefully after you’ve written the first draft. We all know how great that draft feels, the best stories ever written began with one; but it is not as good as the second draft, and it is certainly not as good as the tenth.
Don’t be afraid of that great sensory detail, but don’t fall prey to over-specificity.
Be wary of adverbs when you mean for them to describe human emotions. Instead of telling the reader that Joey Lessner looked excitedly at Tina Koumas from across the dance floor, tell us he put his hand on his pounding heart for fear that it would burst through his rib cage if he didn’t hold it back.
Showing vs. Telling. First of all, it’s okay to tell sometimes, but do not tell us "it was a real struggle for Alfonso to ride his bicycle through the mud." Show us the tires grappling for purchase in the mud, but slipping, let Alfonso scream at the gods for throwing yet another obstacle in his path.
Read your work aloud and edit it for sound, rhythm, and variation in sentence length.
Know something about the rules of fiction, but don’t obey them slavishly.

Fiction Submission Guidelines

If you stick with the format guidelines below, it’ll make it much easier on us if we accept your submission.

Word Count: Please keep your stories to 1,500 words or less. We won’t fuss over the word count, but please be aware that we get hundreds of submissions a year. We won’t complain if you take advantage of our 250-word cushion, but we get grumpy once you get past that.
Double-spaced.
Font. Keep it conventional. If you want to be taken seriously out there in the publishing world, stick to conventional fonts, styles, and sizes.
Color: Black
Size: 12
Type: Times or Times New Roman
Everything else is crazy. No crazy colors. No giant titles.
Keep your margins conventional as well. Word Documents are typically formatted with one-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 fictive reason for the extra space.
Before you log into the Polyphony H.S. Submission Manager, make sure that your name is not written on the manuscript you send to us. All of the works submitted to us are blindly juried, which is to say, our editors should not be made aware of the author.
Hard Copy Submissions. We hate them. Don’t send them.
Deadlines: Polyphony HS accepts submissions year round, but only reads from September 1 through February 15. Stories submitted after February 15 will be considered for publication in the following issue of Polyphony H.S., as long as the author will still be a high school student in the next academic year.
Payment: Polyphony HS authors are not paid in actual money. Maybe some day we’ll be so loaded with cash that this may change. As it is, current contributors will receive three copies of the issue in which they are published. They will also be encouraged to buy any number of additional copies at half the cover price.
The Claudia Ann Seaman Writing Awards: See our Contest section for information

Polyphony H.S. Poetry Submission Guidelines

Authors are limited to three submissions at any one time. Any combination of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction cannot total more than three submissions. Once an action has been made on a previous submission you can submit any piece. No author will have more than three pieces published in any one issue of Polyphony HS.
Font. Keep it conventional. If you want to be taken seriously out there in the publishing world, stick to Black, stick to conventional fonts, styles, and sizes.
Color: Black
Size: 12
Type: Times or Times New Roman
Line count: Due to the limited amount of pages available to authors, poems should be limited to 80 lines.
Regarding Classroom Assignments: By all means, feel free to send us classroom assignments if they fit within the parameters of our writer’s guidelines, but make sure they stand on their own as poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
A word about centering: It’s mostly the mark of a rookie writer. If you choose to center your poem, you should have a pretty compelling reason for centering it. If your reason is because you think it looks good that way, it’s not a good enough reason.
If you want to send us college essays, they shouldn’t sound like college essays. They should stand on their own as personal essays.
Avoid clichés. Please.
Use your spell check and grammar check.
Read your work out loud before submitting it to us.
Revise it before submitting it to us.
Please don’t send us your first drafts. We know it seems like they’re brilliant. We’re tempted to do the same thing. But there’s only one guy out there who doesn’t have to revise his work. And he’s a stinking liar.
Please don’t send us visual art with your submissions
Read back issues of Polyphony HS
A word about profanity in poetry: one swear word goes a heckuva long way. Think carefully before using it. Ask yourself: does the poem gain anything with the word? Does it lose anything with its subtraction.
Before you log into the Polyphony H.S. Submission Manager, make sure that your name is not written on the manuscript you send to us. All of the works submitted to us are blindly juried, which is to say, our editors should not be made aware of the author.
Hard Copy Submissions. We hate them. Don’t send them.
Deadlines: Polyphony H.S. accepts submissions year round, but only reads from September 1 through February 15. Stories submitted after February 15 will be considered for publication in the following issue of Polyphony H.S., as long as the author will still be a high school student in the next academic year.
Payment: Polyphony HS authors are not paid in actual money. Maybe some day we’ll be so loaded with cash that this may change. As it is, current contributors will receive three copies of the issue in which they are published. They will also be encouraged to buy any number of additional copies at half the cover price.
The Claudia Ann Seaman Writing Awards: See our Contest section for information

Polyphony H.S.Creative Nonfiction Submission Guidelines

Fiction format and guidelines apply to Creative Nonfiction (CNF) as well
We’re looking for CNF marked by well-written prose, distinctive voice, and rich detail.
CNF should have an informational quality or instructive element that offers the reader something to learn (an idea, concept, or collection of facts, strong with insight, reflection, and interpretation.
CNF should be marked by compelling, focused, sustained narrative that is well-structured, logical, and meaningful
CNF submissions should be typed, double-spaced, same word count as fiction (1,500-word maximum with 250-word cushion)

Polyphony H.S. A Word about Rights

If we accept your work, you agree to license to us the following rights: (a) exclusive first publication rights worldwide in the English language; (b) nonexclusive rights to reprint the Work in any volume, anthology, or other format published by POLYPHONY HS; (c) nonexclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, or display the Work on electronic databases, on-line networks or other electronic systems or medium now existing or developed for use in projects developed, authorized, or licensed by POLYPHONY HS; (d) nonexclusive right to license the work to a third party; and (e) nonexclusive right to reproduce the Work, or any part thereof, in promotions, or advertising or any other form not offered for sale.
Under United States copyright law, you will retain the copyright in the Work, subject to the rights you have granted to us. Your copyright notice will prominently accompany the Work. In any subsequent reuse or republication of the Work not covered by this grant of rights, you agree to include a credit line as follows: “© (year date of first publication by POLYPHONY HS) (your name), first published in POLYPHONY HS (Volume #).”