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Layla Todd's avatar

I did my undergraduate in Creative Writing at the University of Arizona and interned with the graduate-run lit mag Sonora Review. Highly recommend adding University of Arizona to this list; their MFA program ranks highly for writers interested in cross-disciplinary study and southwestern-adjacent writing.

Ciera Miller's avatar

Sonora Review is another one of my dream journals! Arizona has some of the best MFAs and lit mags (:

Michelle Richmond's avatar

Reading this list feels like a trip back in time in the best way! I did my undergrad years at the University of Alabama. While there, a bunch of us got together and started an undergraduate literary magazine (Marr's Field Journal), which is still publishing today. We were inspired in part by the grad students who ran the Black Warrior Review. I taught for a semester at Bowling Green State University and loved the people in the creative writing program, including the editors of MidAmerican Review (I published a story there more than twenty years ago). And though I've never been in the Massachusetts Review, UMass Press published my debut story collection.

I'm sure many of your readers have similar experiences as they read this post. The world of MFA programs and literary magazines used to be quite small, so paths crossed often. Although the number of MFA programs and magazines has exploded, the journals on this list are classics!

Ciera's avatar

You've run the gamut of university-associated journals and presses, it's so cool! I love that they've been with you throughout your career (:

Prof. A. Burack's avatar

Sarah Lawrence College has Lumina Journal, the new name of the literary magazine, Lumina, which I founded there in 2002.

Ciera's avatar

Lumina is great! It must be so cool to see where it is now, compared to when you started it it almost 25 years ago!

Mervyn Seivwright's avatar

Hello. My alum is missing and their journal has been award winning. +3 The Good River Review is the award-winning online literary journal of the Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. It publishes boundary-blurring prose, poetry, drama, and work for young adults across two issues per year. Students are associate editors in this program.

Ciera's avatar

Oh, we’d love to list Good River Review on our lit mag database--do they accept submissions from the public?

Mervyn Seivwright's avatar

Yes, they do. Sorry for the delayed response.

ROCHELLE NEWMAN-CARRASCO's avatar

I worked for Lunch Ticket at Antioch University, Los Angeles. And, yup! Game changing to pull back the curtain. It made me a better writer, a better workshop colleague, and a better submitter. It also underscored the importance of diverse perspectives across a number of dimensions.

Ciera's avatar

We love Lunch Ticket, and its emphasis on the working class and other underserved communities is so important. I'm glad working there had such a good impact on you in so many ways!

Alex Gurtis's avatar

I worked for Florida Review while getting my MFA at the University of Central Florida and it was an amazing experience. It completely changed how I viewed submitting.

Ciera's avatar

The Florida Review is a dream journal, it's so great you got to work there!