The Columbia Review
Website
From the Publisher
The Columbia Review is the oldest college literary magazine in the nation, publishing its first issue in 1815. At that time the Review was associated with the Philolexian Society, the college’s literary society which was established in 1802. Then entitled Literary Monthly, the magazine underwent various changes throughout the nineteenth century, serving as a forum for both literary and social dialogue amongst students of the time.
In 1898, the magazine was revitalized under the guidance of John Erskine, Professor of English and founder of Columbia’s Core Curriculum. Renamed The Morningside, it was published every third Thursday of the academic year—at a time when a yearly subscription cost only a dollar. While Erskine only served as Chief Editor until 1903, he would continue to oversee the magazine for the next thirty years.
Sometime between 1910 and 1911, Erskine and a number of students gathered in Low Library to form the Boar’s Head Society, a group which would continue to meet until the 1970s. In addition to serving as a forum for the Review, the society held annual literary competitions and published winning pieces in the magazine. The competition was formerly judged by William Carlos Williams, and past winners have included John Berryman, Terrence McNally, John Hollander and Allen Ginsberg.
Under the guidance of Max Feldman, The Morningside officially became The Columbia Review in 1932. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s the magazine was supervised by Mark Van Doren, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, as well as Lionel Trilling. The Review has a rich history of Chief Editors, ranging from Whittaker Chambers to Paul Auster.
The Columbia Review is published twice a year and is available free on the Columbia campus and on the magazine’s website. Unlike other campus magazines, The Columbia Review does not specialize in the work of any particular gender, ethnic group, or university division. We accept and publish submissions from writers and artists not affiliated with Columbia University.
Previous contributors to the Columbia Review have included Nobel Prize winner André Gide, former United States Poet Laureate Daniel Hoffman, and eight Pulitzer Prize winners – John Ashbery, William Carlos Williams, John Berryman, Herman Wouk, Richard Howard, Louis Simpson, Steven Millhauser and Mark Van Doren.
Other contributors have included John Dewey, Allen Ginsberg, Terrence McNally, Thomas Merton, David Lehman, Stephen Orgel, Paul Gallico, Jim Jarmusch, Meyer Shapiro, Herbert Gold, John Erskine, Robert Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, John Hollander, Robert Lax, Paul Goodman, Robert Giroux, Luc Sante, W.C. de Mille, Guy Endore, Mortimer Adler, Charles Feldman, Jacques Barzun, Whittaker Chambers, Cornell Woolrich, Lionel Trilling, Irwin Edman, John Giorno, Ron Padgett, and Louis Zukofsky.
The Columbia Review is sponsored in part by the Arts Initiative at Columbia University. This funding is made possible through a generous gift from The Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
Submissions
We accept submissions of all kinds– fiction, poetry, nonfiction, photography, visual art, whatever.
Information
Editors Name AJ Stoughton
Print publication? Yes
Circulation
Do you take online submissions? Yes
Submission Guidelines URL columbiareviewmag.com/submit
Approx. Response Time? 3 months
How often do you publish? twice a year
Year Founded? 1815
Do you pay?
Contact
Twitter twitter.com/thecolumbiareview
Mailing Address:
515 Lerner Hall
2920 Broadway
New York, New York 10027
Email thecolumbiareview@gmail.com
Facebook facebook.com/thecolumbiareview