Our Mission
Founded in 1977, Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art is one of only a handful of national literary journals edited, designed, and produced, entirely by students. Over the years we have published work from such writers and artists as Raymond Carver, Jorge Luis Borges, Lorrie Moore, Louise Glück, Fred Chappell, Kara Walker, Jane Kenyon, James Tate, Phillip Gourevitch, Diane Williams, Lydia Davis, Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, Phillip Lopate, Ha Jin, Jonathan Lethem, Italo Calvino, John D'Agata, David Shields, Jack Pierson, Sam Lipsyte, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Safran Foer, Wayne Koestenbaum, Deb Olin Unferth, Timothy Liu, Etgar Keret, and many others -- some of whom are being published for the first time. Additionally Columbia has published National Book Award-winners and Nobel laureates as well as Tom Perrotta's first short story, early poems by Alicia Ostriker, Suji Kwock Kim and others. Columbia publishes the very best contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction along with visual art and photography. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry editorial boards select content from unsolicited and solicited submissions throughout the year. The staff rotates yearly, and we strive to select established and emerging authors of diverse backgrounds and histories. We do not publish work by current Columbia students or those who have graduated within the past five years.
Our History
Since its founding, Columbia has become well-respected in the literary community and has secured coast to coast distribution in stores such as Barnes & Noble and countless independent bookstores across the country. Much of Columbia’s success is due to the dedication and ingenuity of a staff that has included Phillip Gourevitch, Rick Moody, Sophie Cabot Black, Mark Wunderlich, Melora Wolff, Tracy Smith, Scott Hightower, and many others. Columbia is a member of the Council of Literary Magazines and Pressed and receives funding from the New York State Councils on the Arts.
Columbia prints one issue per year, distributing approximately 300 promotional copies, 300 subscription copies, and 1,000 sale copies nationally. Columbia receives national distribution through Ingram Periodicals, Inc., EBSCO, and Ubiquity Distribution and is available in many bookstores and libraries across the nation and overseas. Columbia is also widely distributed in the Columbia University area, with all Writing Division students and faculty and all incoming School of the Arts students (approximately 500 per issue) receiving complimentary copies of the journal, as well as distribution around campus.
From September 1-May 1, the journal accepts free unsolicited submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art from across the country -- approximately 2,000 submissions per year. We host a contest for each genre in our magazine in order to promote new voices. Our readings, which launch each issue, showcase new and established authors in the New York City area as a means of bringing wider audiences to the work it publishes. Columbia maintains a website and works to gain the readership of not only the literary and academic audience but also the greater public.
Columbia is indexed in American Humanities Index (Whitson Publishing Company). National distributors to retail trade: Ingram Periodicals (La Vergne, TN); Bernhard DeBoer (Nutley, NJ); Ubiquity Distribution, Inc. (Brooklyn, NY).
Issue 46 is out now! Featuring new work from Diane Williams, Steve Almond, and Paul Muldoon, plus an interview with Susan Orlean. Look for it in your local bookstore or order a copy online!
Phillip Lopate, Diane Williams, and other renowned writers spoke at the Journal's last event, "Writing by Numbers: A Panel Discussion on Academia and the Arts," on April 2. Watch it here.