The Freshwater Literary Journal is a professional literary journal coordinated by students at Asnuntuck since 2000. We seek submissions from the public and publish a wide variety of literary work from students and professional writers worldwide. We consider poetry, short stories, personal essays, and creative nonfiction.
Dates and Deadlines
Submission Period: August 15, 2024, to February 15, 2025. Acceptances and rejections will be sent on a rolling basis, no later than the end of March 2025. The new edition will be published in May 2025.
Submission Guidelines
Freshwater accepts poetry, short stories, personal essays and creative nonfiction submissions. We seek to publish a wide variety of literary works from people of all backgrounds. We look for new experimental takes on old mediums as well as more traditional approaches.
Poetry
Three poems maximum, up to 40 lines each.
Prose
Fiction or nonfiction
One or multiple pieces up to 1,500 words total.
Submissions should be sent to Freshwater@acc.commnet.edu. (No snail-mail submissions, please.)
To submit, email your entire submission as an attachment, including your name.
No cover letter needed, but send a third-person bio (100 words maximum) with mailing address in the body of the e-mail.
No previously published material. Simultaneous submissions permissible if you notify us immediately of acceptance elsewhere. Payment is one contributor copy.
Copies of Freshwater’s print issues (starting in 2005) are available for purchase. Please email john.sheirer@ctstate.edu for details.
2024-2025
Student Writing Contest
Open to full- and part-time undergraduate students enrolled at Connecticut’s colleges and public universities during 2024-2025.
(2024-2025 — Personal Essays — Judge: TBA)
Prizes
- 1st Prize: $100
- 2nd Prize: $75
- 3rd Prize: $50
- Up to three honorable mentions: $25 each
Winning authors will have their work published in the 2025 edition of Asnuntuck’s literary journal Freshwater and may be invited to receive their awards at the annual Freshwater Literary Festival either online or at the college in late April or early May 2025.
Entry Deadline
February 15, 2025. Decisions will be made by the end of March.
Rules and Guidelines
Open to full- and part-time undergraduate students enrolled during 2024 or 2025 at Connecticut’s community colleges and/or public universities. Student writers may submit up to three unpublished essays no longer than 1,500 words each. Email the essay/essays in a single .doc, .docx, or .rtf document (with titles but no names on the poems for anonymous judging) to Freshwater@acc.commnet.edu. Include an email message with name, address, college affiliation, email address, phone number, brief third-person biographical note, and the titles of stories submitted. Stories that do not win prizes will be considered for publication in the 2025 Freshwater Literary Journal.
Dig Deeper
Contributors to Freshwater Reading Their Stories, Poems and Essays
- Elizabeth Haggblade*
- Taylor Graham
- Fabiana Elisa Martínez
- Steve Straight
- RM Grant*
- Susan Winters Smith
- Brenden Pontz
- Jessica Handly
- Frank William Finney
- Zdravka Evitmova
- Dale Stromberg
- Nancy Schumann
Authors Reading at Asnuntuck
- Susanne Davis reads from her new novel, Gravity Hill
- Steve Straight reads from his new book of poems, Affirmation
First Two Episodes of the Freshwater Literary Series
Other Freshwater Videos