About the Journal

Columbia Journal was founded in 1977 by students in the Columbia University School of the Arts Graduate Writing program. Since then, we’ve featured work from Nobel laureates and unknowns, National Book Award winners and newcomers. Our past issues have included everyone from Raymond Carver to Lorrie Moore, Kara Walker, Sharon Olds, Mary Karr, and Joyce Carol Oates. 

Today, Columbia Journal publishes in print and online, seeking to showcase the best poetry, nonfiction, fiction, translation and visual art on both platforms. The print edition, published each spring, is a combination of solicited work and the best of the submissions we’ve received—including the winners of our annual winter contest. Online, you’ll find reviews and interviews with writers and artists, as well as the same caliber of original, vibrantly creative work that the print edition is known for.