Emily Tong
"I know history. There are many names in history / but none of them are ours." (r. siken, "little beast")
Emily Tong is a Chinese-American poet from New Jersey. A Best of the Net nominee, her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, Fugue Journal, Palette Poetry, the Poetry Society of Virginia, Hollins University, and Just Poetry, among others. She is the recipient of a 2025 National Gold Medal in Poetry from the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers and the Jenkins Prize from the Poetry Society of Virginia.Her writing appears or is forthcoming in Augur Magazine, Palette Poetry, Marmalade Lit, *The McNeese Review, BRAWL, Luna Luna Magazine, Shō Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. She is the founder of the Bergen County Youth Poet Laureate program and the co-founder of Artrepreneurship Initiative Alliance, a youth-led nonprofit supporting artists, small businesses, and creative entrepreneurship.
Select Work
"Offshore, I Don't Kiss Anybody" - Frontier Poetry (2026 Frontier OPEN Contest Finalist)
"I think I hate gardening" - Palette Poetry, 2026 Palette Poetry Prize Finalist
“My English Teacher Poses the Question of How Something Becomes an Angel” - BRAWL Lit
"Para-Tender" - Thimble
“graveyard of little things” - The Weight Journal
“The Great White Shark, Beached, Builds a Data Center” and “And I Swear I Could Be in Love, But” - Rosetta Lit
"On Trash Day, 3 Miles Away From The Dead Deer" - Twin Flame Literary
"BREAKING NEWS: UNIVERSE, DEAD AT 13.8 BILLION YEARS OLD” - Marmalade Lit (Spring Contest Winner, Best of the Net Nominee)
"Girlhood Ghazal" - Luna Luna Magazine, republished in The Dewdrop
"Draft Season" - Eunoia Review
"On the Earth Ruiner" - Elixince Literary
3 Poems - Rind&Root Journal
"Airplane Litany Wherein The Father is Absent" - Blue Marble Review & The Bokeh Review, forthcoming
“deathbed portrait for my dad’s twenty-six-year-old wallet” and “妈, I Think I Am Tired of Carrying” - Silk & Ink Magazine, forthcoming
“patina” - Augur Magazine, forthcoming (print)
"Mao's Flowers, 70 Years Later" - Shō Poetry Journal, forthcoming (print)
"Contrapuntal for the Styrofoam Moon" - Orion Literary, forthcoming
“The Red Slip Says ‘THIS BUS HAS BEEN CHECKED FOR SLEEPING CHILDREN’” - wildscape. literary journal, forthcoming
"Sonata in Which I Convince My Neighbor to Let the Rabbit Go" - The McNeese Review, forthcoming
"What if this is all we are to each" - Wild Roof Journal, forthcoming
"EVERY POEM IS ABOUT MY MOTHER AND I AM TRYING TO NOT MAKE IT SO" - Hanging Loose Press, forthcoming
"ON REACHING FOR ARCADIA" - Nine Mile Magazine, forthcoming
"In “Offshore, I Don’t Kiss Anybody,” Tong collapses the space between the swirling vapor world of the fish pond and her pondering. To kiss or to not kiss this fishboy. The subject circles the answer until finally coming to a paradoxical end. Tong creates a climax from the inaction of not leaning in."
—Frontier Poetry
Emily's work has also been accepted for publication in ANMLY, Rawhead, The Plentitudes Journal, and Discretionary Love.
2024-2025
"please bury the plastic hanger with your grandfather" - Scholastic Art and Writing and Silk & Ink Magazine
Interviews
Experiences
2026 Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Mentee, under Caroliena Cabada
2025 Iowa Young Writers' Studio attendee, under Joshua Balicki
Honors
2026 Best of the Net nominee (via Marmalade Lit)
2026 Palette Poetry Prize Finalist
2026 Fugue Poetry Contest Finalist
2026 Frontier OPEN Contest Finalist
2025 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (Poetry) - 1 National Gold Medal, 1 Gold Key, 4 Silver Keys, 2 Honorable Mentions
2026 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (Poetry) - 2 Gold Keys, 5 Silver Keys, 7 Honorable Mentions
JUST POETRY National High School Poetry Contest Fall "Best of Issue" Winner (2024-25)
Silk & Ink Magazine Issue 02 - 2nd Place Grand Winner
Silk & Ink Magazine Issue 04 - 1st Place Grand Winner
Marmalade Lit - 2026 Spring Contest Winner, Best of the Net nominee
2025, 2026 Nancy Thorp Poetry Contest Top 20 Finalist, 2026 Honorable Mention
Poetry Society of Virginia Jenkins Prize, 1st Place (2023-2024)
Contact Emily
Want to talk with Emily about anything and everything? Contact her below:
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @emily_zt_