The first issue of the Columbia Journal was published in the fall of 1977 by the students of the Columbia University School of the Arts Graduate Writing Program. It was sixty-seven pages long and featured poetry and fiction, including works in translation, as well as an interview with poet Stanely Kunitz. “It’s a rather ambiguous period,” Kunitz said of the prevailing mood of the time. “One of disenchantment and cynicism, distrust of elders, distrust of the social order, but no flag to wave, and very little idealism.”
Forty-four years later, we are now breaking ground on the sixtieth issue of the Columbia Journal. While the Journal’s presence has expanded to include nonfiction and art, as well as online content, we find ourselves in a period of uncertainty and ambiguity similar to that described by Kunitz. To mark this milestone issue, we will be reprising and engaging with pieces from our archives as a means of gauging our future and the future of the literary arts at large. With both online and print initiatives, as well as the imminent possibility of in-person events, we hope this work moves you to continue the discourse into your own lives.
Looking forward to this year of reading,
E. Madison Shimoda, Editor in Chief
Kai-Lily Karpman, Managing Editor
Zoma Crum-Tesfa, Print Editor
Madeleine Cravens, Online Editor
