Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art

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, Phillip Gourevitch, Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky, Phillip Lopate, Ha Jin, Jonathan Lethem, Italo Calvino, Diane Williams, Lydia Davis, John D'Agata, David Shields, Jack Pierson, Sam Lipsyte, Heidi Julavits, Jonathan Safran Foer, Wayne Koestenbaum, 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 We do not publish work by current Columbia students or those who have graduated within the past five years.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. Much of Columbia’s success is due to the dedication and ingenuity of a staff that has included 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 two issues per year, a Fall/Winter issue in October and a Spring/Summer issue in April, for a total of 4,000 copies of the journal a year. Columbia distributes approximately 600 promotional copies, 300 subscription copies, and 2,000 sale copies nationally per year. Columbia receives national distribution through Ingram Periodicals, Inc., Ubiquity Distribution, and Berhard DeBoer, 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 all incoming School of the Arts students (approximately 500 per issue) receiving free copies of the journal, as well as distribution around campus.

From September 1 through 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 means to bring wider audiences to the work in 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).

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