News About Our Talented Team

Co-Founder and Artistic Director, Billy Lombardo, wins the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Short Story Award for his short story Clover. 
billybookshootFiction writers Marisa Silver, Kevin Brockmeier and Chang-rae Lee chose Billy's piece from more than 500 entries. Previous winners include Louise Erdrich, Julia Glass and Stuart Dybek. 

Billy was born and raised in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. He is the author of The Logic of a Rose: Chicago Stories, a Chicago Tribune Best Fiction of 2005 selection, How to Hold a Woman, (OV Books 2009), a book of poetry/prose, Meanwhile, Roxy Mourns (EM Press 2009),  The Man with Two Arms, (Overlook Press 2010), and the forthcoming Billy Young Adult novella,
The Day of the Palindrome.

To read Clover, click here.

Clara Fannjiang, Co-editor-in-Chief, wins the Poetry Society of America's Louise Lois/Emily F. Bourne Award for her poem "Bird Under the Lamppost." 
clarafannjiangClara also received a national silver medal from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. This is Clara's third medal from the Alliance for Young Writers and Artists, arguably the countries most prestigious awards for creative youth. Additionally, four of her poems ("The Elephant", "How to Fall from a Cliff", "Of Men Like Angels", and "Toward and Beyond") were published in issue 98 of Hanging Loose.

Clara, a junior and a self-professed chemistry nerd from Davis, California, won 2nd place in at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in the physics/astronomy category and 1st place at the National Junior Symposium for Humanities and Sciences in the same category for applied math research in optimizing antennae configurations for radio interferometry. "The Epic Mission" of Clara's life, "is to make scientists and writers stop the turf wars and combine their awesome magical powers."

To read "Bird Under the Lampost" click here.

For more on Hanging Loose Press, click here.

To learn more about the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, click here.

   

National Editor Training Workshops Educate A New Crop of Editors

Congratulations to twenty-two editors editheaderwho completed our summer NET Workshops at our offices in Evanston, IL. The NET Workshops remain our best opportunity to share our mission and belief with students who care deeply about the importance of creative writing in the lives of the young people who write and edit for Polyphony H.S. The three-day workshops are a critical component of our on-going commitment to developing editors not only for leadership positions on Polyphony H.S., but for the larger literary community. The NET workshops allow us plenty of time to discuss and explore the importance of editing for content and tone, precise creative and critical communication, but more than anything, the workshops allow us to experience one of the most important features of our organization, being a valuable member of an editorial and literary community.

The workshops were highlighted by poetry sessions by Dorothy Sargent Rosenburg award-winning poet, Laura Van Prooyen, and poetry instructor, Ann McGlinn. The Creative Nonfiction session was presented by writer and teacher, Frank Tempone.

To learn more about Laura Van Prooyen, and to read her work, visit her webpage.
Follow Frank Tempone on Twitter!

   

Meet Our Newest Intern

A Special Welcome to our Director of Editor Development, Keely Mullen

keelymullenpicWe are over the moon about our newest PHS intern, Genre Editor, Keely Mullen! Keely has been a committed editor for two years, and has impressed us with her intelligence, insight, and endless enthusiasm for all things Polyphony H.S. She will work closely with Executive Director, Beth Keegan, in many areas, but especially to improve editor-to-editor communication and to build stronger connections with our global editorial panel. Keely is a senior at Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. Welcome, Keely.