I I was half asleep when Ma whispered into my ear that it was time to go. The sun had not yet risen, but light...
Review: Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing
It feels almost serendipitous that Olivia Laing’s essay collection Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency has been published during a global pandemic. In the wake...
Writing Iranian America: An Interview with Porochista Khakpour
In this interview, Jasmine Vojdani speaks with writer Porochista Khakpour about fragmented identity, being Iranian in America, regret, and her new book, The Brown Album:...
Photo Essay: Haiti Beyond the Headlines
In order to mark both the earthquake anniversary and the easing of peyilok, Haitian journalist Junior St Vil and Ildi Tillmann, author and documentary photographer,...
Review: American Harvest: God, Country, and Farming in the Heartland by Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Marie Mutsuki Mockett’s journey begins among the tumbleweeds of Texas and finishes with a crawl over the Rockies and a descent into the fertile Snake...
Spring 2020 Contest: Winners & Runner Ups Announced
Columbia Journal is excited to announce the winners and finalists of our annual Spring Contest, which was judged by Melissa Febos in nonfiction, Analicia Sotelo...
Spring Contest Runner Up in Nonfiction: Gringos
People always asked what we were doing there. The rehearsed line I said when people asked was, “We’re expatriates.” In my eight-year-old mind this word...
Spring Contest Runner Up in Nonfiction: Family Sauce
Grandma Sally pinched and blended. Smoothed and spiked. Followed where scent and hands led her with “a little of this, a little of that.”
Spring Contest Runner Up in Nonfiction: The Magicians
I arrived in camp in the middle of 2017, resuming my National Service after some years abroad. I remember little of those first, scorched days,...
Spring Contest Winner in Nonfiction: On Becoming a Root Vegetable
The carrot seedlings grew two perfect, long leaves like blades of grass. I’d vibrate with excitement every time I peeked in on them, every time...
Review: Synthesizing Gravity by Kay Ryan
Ryan’s own uninviting prose mirrors her philosophy about poetry: that it is not meant to be easy or satisfying.
Available for purchase: Columbia Journal, issue 58
Columbia Journal's new print issue is now available for pre-order!