writer’s guidelines
- Poets and writers must be high school students (aged 14-18) or enrolled in an equivalent secondary education program.
- Please submit no more than three total submissions, not three submissions per genre.
- Please ensure that your submission follows all guidelines, including word/line limits and guidelines for creative nonfiction (submissions that do not follow guidelines will be withdrawn and returned without feedback
- All submissions are blindly juried, so STET magazine editors are eligible to submit
- All submissions must be written in English, though brief use of other languages is acceptable where appropriate
- All works must be original works only
- Submit no more than three pieces per submission period (submission year begins annually on May 15 and ends the following April 15)
- Multiple pieces: please upload as separate submissions. Multiple pieces submitted in a single document will be withdrawn, and you will be asked to resubmit your pieces separately.
- We accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if you work has been accepted elsewhere
- We accept work that has been published elsewhere, but please include a message in Submission Manager if your work has been previously published and include information about its eligibility for republication elsewhere.
- We will acknowledge the source of the original publication if we select previously published work
- We are committed to showcasing only work that is created by humans, our editors go through serious editorial training, and are only interested in providing feedback to humans. All submissions must be entirely the work of the submitting author. If any part of any submission even smells like AI-generated material, it will not be considered, nor will it receive editorial feedback.
submission length
- Poetry: there are no strict line limits for poetry, but overwhelmingly, accepted poems are under 60 lines
- Fiction and creative nonfiction should be 1500 words or less. You may submit work up to 1800 words in length
format
- The author’s name should not be included anywhere on submissions in any genre
- We accept submissions in .doc, .docx or .rtf formats
- Submissions should be in black & white; no other color font should be used
- Font Size: 12 pt. throughout, including titles
- Poetry should be formatted flush left unless the author has a compelling reason to present the piece in another format, such as centering
using submission manager
- All submissions must come through our submission platform, Submission Manager
- We do not accept email submissions or hard copies via mail
- If you submit a revision of a piece that we have already reviewed, type “(REV)” after the title, or in the comment field
- There is no fee to submit
- By submitting to Polyphony Lit you give us permission to publish your piece as outlined by STET magazine’s Copyright Policy
a word about creative nonfiction
- At stet, the magazine, we look for creative nonfiction (CNF) pieces that are written in the style of short personal essays. A great resource for creative nonfiction writers is Phillip Lopate’s The Art of the Personal Essay. Elsewhere on our website we have a CNF checklist amended from Lopate’s book.
- We’re looking for CNF that is informal, flexible in form, and personal; we’re looking for cnf that wrestles with something that matters. 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 CNF we publish.
- We do not publish critical analyses, research papers, or academic essays.
cover art guidelines
- Artists must be high school students (aged 14-18) or enrolled in an equivalent secondary education program.
- For the art category, we welcome multiple submissions. Art submissions are unlimited and do not count toward the poetry/prose submission limit.
- Submitted artwork will be considered for Cover Art (which will appear both on the website and in print) and (2) Promotional Art (which may appear on social media, on our website, and in our online and IRL workshops).
- Images must be at least 2700 x 1800 pixels. Images with low resolution will not be eligible for cover art.
- Images must have a resolution of at least 300 DPI (dots per inch).
- Portrait orientation (6 x 9 inches or equivalent dimensions) is preferred.
- Artists are not limited to any particular theme.
- We accept simultaneous submissions but if the piece is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately. Only previously unpublished artwork is eligible.
- Submissions may include drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, or mixed media.
- All submissions must be original
- We will not consider AI-generated artwork
“where i’m writing from” photos
send us photos from your corner of the globe!
As an international magazine, we’re as interested in the places our writers come from as much as the words they send us. Poets and writers are invited to submit one scenic photograph from their part of the world—a street, a landscape, a view from a window, a shoreline, a neighborhood, a street on their block—any image that feels rooted in place and will show our authors the global community behind the work. readers the global
- photographs should be original, taken by the author, and submitted as a separate file
- photograph submissions do not count toward the poetry/prose submission limit
- photographs will be considered for inclusion on our website to help readers
- we are interested in images of place—landscapes, streets, buildings, or views—rather than photographs of people.
- submission/acceptance of photos will not influence editorial decisions of genre submissions
