Freshwater Literary Journal
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, 2025, to February 15, 2026. Acceptances and rejections will be sent on a rolling basis, no later than the end of March 2026. The new edition will be published in May 2026.
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 as_freshwater@ctstate.edu. (No snail-mail submissions, please.)
To submit, email your entire submission as one 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. Absolutely no AI-generated material.
Contact John Sheirer for details: John.sheirer@ctstate.edu.
2025-2026
Student Writing Contest
Open to full- and part-time undergraduate students enrolled at CT State Community College or Connecticut State Colleges & Universities.
(2025-2026 — Poetry — Judge: Nzima Hutchings)
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 2026 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 2026.
Entry Deadline
February 15, 2026. Decisions will be made by the end of March.
Rules and Guidelines
Open to full- and part-time undergraduate students enrolled during 2024, 2025, or 2026 at CT State Community College or Connecticut State Colleges & Universities. Student writers may submit up to three unpublished poems. Each poem should be no longer than 40 lines. Email the poems in a single .doc, .docx, or .rtf document (titles but no author’s names on the poems for anonymous judging) to as_freshwater@ctstate.edu. Include the following in the email message itself: name, mailing address, college affiliation, email address, phone number, brief third-person biographical note, and the titles of the poems submitted. Poems that do not win prizes will be considered for publication in the 2026 edition of Freshwater Literary Journal.
Dig Deeper
Contributors to Freshwater Reading Their Stories, Poems and Essays
- Rachel Beachy
- Brian C. Billings
- Jennifer Campbell
- Aja Cooper
- Joe Cottonwood
- Joanne Durham
- Zdravka Evitmova
- Frank William Finney
- Lana La Framboise
- Taylor Graham
- RM Grant*
- Elizabeth Haggblade*
- Jessica Handly
- Rachel Linton
- Fabiana Elisa Martínez
- Brenden Pontz
- Barbara Santucci
- Nancy Schumann
- John Sheirer
- Susan Winters Smith
- Steve Straight (2025)
- Steve Straight
- Dale Stromberg
Authors Reading at Asnuntuck
- Anne Pinkerton reads from her memoir, Were You Close?
- 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