Submissions Call:
The Tower is an undergraduate print literary magazine produced by students at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus. The magazine is distributed on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus and online for free. This year The Tower is seeking fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and hybrid submissions from undergraduate students at any university or college in the state of Minnesota pertaining to the theme of “Passages.”
Tunnels, corridors, roads, and rivers. Doors behind bookcases, trapdoors under the stairs, paths of desire cutting through the woods. A journey, a quest, a voyage. Passages take many forms. In their simplest sense, passages bring you from point A to point B, from beginnings to ends, from firsts to lasts. Passages happen through space, through time, through individuals and communities. It’s growth, it’s movement, it’s change.
How did you (or we) get here? Where have you (we) been? Where are you (we) going? Passages come from a choice to change; they result from pure inertia, necessity, resignation, and sometimes something in between.
We accept submissions starting on October 10th, 2025 through our Submittable, which is accessible on The Tower website. Please include a short cover letter with your contact information and a brief author bio written in the third person, suitable for publication including your year, major, and institute of study. Further specifications are available in each genre’s Submittable. Submissions will be read during the fall semester, and the issue will be published during the spring semester. Please email us at thetower@umn.edu with any further questions.
Submissions close January 5th, 2026.
Acquisition Standards:
- We look for works from Minnesota undergraduate students (who may be attending any university in Minnesota) that are original, authentic, and emotionally resonant.
- We encourage submissions from LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists to give voice to the many perspectives and communities that call Minnesota home.
- We accept simultaneous submissions on the condition that if a piece is accepted elsewhere, the artist communicates this with the editors and withdraws the piece from consideration.
- We do not publish work that is hateful towards any marginalized community or could be construed as hateful.
- The Tower reserves the right to rescind planned publication at any time according to the guidelines outlined above.
NOTE: This edition of The Tower seeks to demonstrate the value of human creativity. As such, submissions that employ generative AI in any capacity will not be considered.
Nonfiction Submission Guidelines
Submit nonfiction here.
Only currently enrolled undergraduate students of Minnesota’s institutions of higher education are eligible to submit.
With your submission, please send a short cover letter addressed to the editors including:
- your year, major, and college/university of study,
- a short bio suitable for publication written in third person,
- your email address and phone number, and
If you’re submitting your work elsewhere, please note this in your cover letter.
Submitting your creative nonfiction:
- 1,800-word maximum per submission.
- You may only submit up to two works of nonfiction.
- Submit as a Word (.doc or .docx file). Name the file with the title of the piece.
- If you are submitting multiple pieces, please submit each one separately.
“We’re looking for stories that feel lived in and honest, just like the human experience. This is not a call for perfection; we’re looking for something real.”
--Nonfiction Editors
Submissions are read during the fall semester; the issue is published during the spring semester in print and online, and is distributed for free on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
Our deadline is January 5th, 2026.
Art Submission Guidelines
Submit visual art here.
Only currently enrolled undergraduate students of Minnesota’s institutions of higher education are eligible to submit.
With your submission, please send a short cover letter addressed to the editors including:
- your year, major, and college/university of study,
- a short bio suitable for publication written in third person,
- your email address and phone number, and
- an artist's statement and a brief list including medium and materials.
If you’re submitting your work elsewhere, please note this in your cover letter.
Submitting your visual art:
- Submit your photography, paintings, drawings, comics, etc. as high-resolution, print-quality images (High-resolution, print-quality images: 300 dpi, in JPG or TIF file format. Size to fit roughly a 7” x 11" page size. Use a CMYK color profile.).
- Name the file with the title of the piece. Do not include your name in the file title.
- If you are submitting multiple pieces, please submit them separately.
We do not accept:
- Fan art such as portraits of famous people (musicians, celebrities, etc.); photographs of concerts or performances; imitations of posters, logos, brands, etc.
- Social-media-inspired art and writing such as portraits with Instagram filters, meme imitations, tributes to YouTubers, etc.
- More than ten pieces per submission period.
- Already published visual artwork. This includes but is not limited to social media, personal websites, and sites like Redbubble.
- Artwork made by generative AI or art that has AI-generated elements.
Submissions are reviewed during the fall semester and in early spring semester. The issue is published during the spring semester in print and online, and is distributed for free on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
Our deadline is January 5th, 2026.
Hybrid Submission Guidelines
Submit potpourri work here.
Only currently enrolled undergraduate students of Minnesota’s institutions of higher education are eligible to submit.
Description of the potpourri category
Have an idea that doesn't quite fit into the poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or art categories? Potpourri is defined as a mixture of things, a miscellaneous collection, or a medley. This is the place to let your imagination run wild and think outside the ordinary confines of a literary journal. We want to see your best interpretation of the category!
Submissions we would classify as hybrid include, but are not limited to: comics, music (sheet music or lyrics), quizzes, games, maps, recipes, instruction manuals, and more.
With your submission, please send a short cover letter addressed to the editors including:
- your year, major, and college/university of study,
- a short bio suitable for publication written in third person,
- your email address and phone number, and
- an artist's statement and a brief list including medium and materials.
If you’re submitting your work elsewhere, please note this in your cover letter.
Submitting your potpourri works:
- Three pages maximum per submission.
- You can submit up to three potpourri works.
- Must be printable in a physical literary magazine.
- Submit .docx or PDF files. NOT pages!
Submissions are read during the fall semester. The issue is published during the spring semester in print and online, and is distributed for free on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
Our deadline is January 5th, 2026.
Poetry Submission Guidelines
Only currently enrolled undergraduate students of Minnesota’s institutions of higher education are eligible to submit.
With your submission, please send a short cover letter addressed to the editors including:
- your year, major, and college/university of study,
- a short bio suitable for publication written in third person, and
- your email address and phone number.
If you’re submitting your work elsewhere, please note this in your cover letter.
Submitting your poetry:
- We accept poems of any format and style, up to two pages in length.
- Please submit your work as a PDF attachment and name the file with the title of the poem.
- If you are submitting multiple poems, submit each separately. Please submit no more than five poems per submission period.
- If applicable, please include content warnings for your piece.
Submissions are reviewed during the fall semester and in early spring semester. The issue is published during the spring semester in print and online, and is distributed for free on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
Our deadline is January 5th, 2026.
Fiction Submission Guidelines
Submit fiction work here.
Only currently enrolled undergraduate students of Minnesota’s institutions of higher education are eligible to submit.
With your submission, please send a short cover letter addressed to the editors including:
- your year, major, and college/university of study,
- a short bio suitable for publication written in third person, and
- your email address and phone number.
If you’re submitting your work elsewhere, please note this in your cover letter.
Submitting your fiction:
- You may only submit one piece of fiction.
- 3,000-word maximum per submission.
- Format your piece using 12-point font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins.
- Submit your work as a Microsoft Word (.docx) file or a PDF.
Submissions are reviewed during the fall semester and in early spring semester. The issue is published during the spring semester in print and online, and is distributed for free on the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
Our deadline is January 5th, 2026.