The Tower
There are presently no open calls for submissions.
Only currently enrolled undergraduate students at colleges and universities in the United States are eligible to submit.
Edited, designed, and produced by students enrolled in a two-semester course offered by the English Department, The Tower is an annual journal that publishes the best in art, poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by undergraduates.
Please enter a cover letter addressed to the editors, and include a short bio for yourself written in third person, suitable for publication, should your work be accepted. List your year, major, university/college, and anything else you would like us to know. For visual artwork, please specify the medium, dimensions and year of completion. Include your contact information: email address, phone number, and a current street mailing address.
Submissions are read during the fall semester; the issue is published during the spring semester in print and online, and is distributed free on the Twin Cities Campus of the University of Minnesota.
Our deadline is November 30, 2022.
Acquisitions Standards
1. We look for work that is original, authentic, fresh, new, and insightful. We look for work that is conversant with contemporary literature and art. We seek work that reflects education and study, practice and commitment.
2. We look for work that demonstrates awareness of the conventions of genre; that innovates and experiments successfully; that is skillful on the level of craft; that demonstrates intentionality and control of its materials; that includes awareness of audience.
3. We do not publish work that contains gratuitous or disrespectful usage of the following: swear words, drug use, violence, suicide, rape, abuse, animal cruelty, religion, politics. By gratuitous we mean work that uses highly charged subjects simply to provoke responses from readers, without providing substantive grounding and serving no artistic purpose. We do not publish shock-value pieces nor joke-pieces nor merely irreverent pieces.
4. We do not publish racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, classism, ageism, or any form of hate speech.
5. We seek work that gives authentic expression to the diverse voices and experiences of our campus community. We do not publish work that appropriates identity.
6. We do not publish work that serves as advertising for or reviews of businesses and corporations.
7. We do not publish fan art or fan fiction.
8. We do not publish work that is overly confessional or potentially libelous.