Publications

Hair Trigger

For over thirty years, Hair Trigger has featured the best of the best from student writing generated in Story Workshop® and other classes in the Fiction Writing Department. Edited by top students in the program who work with a faculty advisor, this magazine has maintained a standard of excellence unrivaled by similar journals from the nation's best creative writing programs. Twenty-five issues entered in national competitions have resulted in 26 major awards, including nine Gold Crowns from the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association (CSPA), two first-place prizes from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines (Now Council of Literary Magazines and Presses—CLMP), and two Director's Prizes from the Associate Writing Programs (AWP). In addition, students appearing in its pages have won numerous individual awards for excellence, including over 100 individual awards from CSPA alone (three times sweeping the Traditional Fiction, Experimental Fiction, and Creative-Nonfiction Essay categories of this competition) — a record testifying to the quality and range of writing byColumbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department students.

F Magazine

In today's world, for a multitude of reasons, the author who aims at reaching the broadest possible audience with a literary novel faces a steep, uphill battle. Novel excerpts published in F Magazine show that is still a noble goal. Devoted largely to novels-in-progress, the magazine also includes short stories, essays, poetry, roundtable discussions, and interviews. Founded by John Schultz and edited by Tom Popp, with help from faculty, students, and interns, F Magazine features vivid excerpts of novels-in-progress.

Several stories and novel excerpts published in the nationally distributed F Magazine received Illinois Arts Council literary awards.

The most recent issue, F9: Places and the Movement of Our Time, features a wide variety of content and voice with novel excerpts from Eric Charles May, Mort Castle, and Gina Frangello.

Fictionary

Fictionary, a student-produced publication, is the department's nationally distributed newsletter with articles, essays, and interviews by the department’s diverse faculty, students, and alumni.

Functioning not only as a window onto the department by providing noteworthy news about publications by students and faculty, Fictionary features interviews with Fiction Writing faculty such as Audrey Niffenegger and Patricia Ann McNair as well as visiting writers like Irvine Welsh and Joyce Carol Oates.

The magazine serves to highlight the array of accomplishments from the department and allow students an avenue toward experience and publication.