Polyphony Web Edition, Winter 2010/2011
This change is the result of two important realities, the first being that you, our audience, are wired for the digital world—and we want to meet you where you read. Secondly, increasing paper publication costs puts a significant financial strain on a lit mag of our size. We value what we do and the contribution that young writers make, and we'd rather put our resources into more innovative endeavors. We hope you'll agree.
This Polyphony W.E. volume also presents the winners of the 2010 Claudia Ann Seaman Awards for Young Writers. The winners are Joshua Schnessl for his poem, "A Regular Entropy;" Jessica Carlaw for her short fiction work, "Yellow;" and Jessica Renfrew for her non-fiction piece, "White Horse." Each category also has at least one honorable mention winner. Congratulations each of you for your fine work!
Three award-winning writers, Travis Nichols, Simone Muench, and Angela Bonavoglia selected the winners in the poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. We thank them for their enthusiasm, and for their belief in the importance of nurturing young talent. The attention and encouragement of young writers' by adults who make their living by the written word gives our contributors reason to believe that their voice is important and is being heard. There is nothing more important to us. We also thank the Claudia Ann Seaman Foundation for it's continued support of our mission and for encouraging artistic excellence.
About the Judges
Judge for Poetry: Simone Muench
Simone Muench is the author of The Air Lost in Breathing (Marianne Moore Prize; Helicon Nine, 2000), Lampblack & Ash (Kathryn A. Morton Prize and New York Times Editor’s Choice; Sarabande, 2005), Orange Crush (Sarabande, 2010), and Disappearing Address co-written with Philip Jenks (BlazeVOX, forthcoming). She is a recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, a VSC Fellowship, 49th Parallel Poetry Award, AWP Intro Journals Award, PSA’s Bright Lights/Big Verse Contest and others. She has work published, or forthcoming, in The Believer, Poetry, Iowa Review, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly. Muench directs the Writing Program at Lewis University, and is an editor for Sharkforum.
Judge for Fiction: Travis Nichols 
Travis Nichols is the author of two collections of poetry, Iowa, and See Me Improving, and the novel Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder. He edits the online magazine Weird Deer, and regularly contributes to The Believer, Paste, The Stranger, and the Huffington Post. His writing has appeared in a wide range of magazines and journals, such as the Boston Review, Crowd, Lungfull!, and Denver Quarterly. He lives in Chicago where he is an editor at the Poetry Foundation.
Judge for Creative Non-Fiction: Angela Bonavoglia
Angela Bonavoglia is an author and award-winning journalist. A former contributing editor to Ms., her work has appeared in the Nation, Salon, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, Newsday, Cosmopolitan, Redbook and the Women's Media Center. Bonavoglia is also the author of The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak Out About Abortion, which was featured on Oprah, and Good Catholic Girls: How Women Are Leading the Fight to Change the Church.