Student Groups & Activities 

Wesleyan has a rich and ongoing history of student publications, writing circles, reading clubs, and other activities related to the spoken and written word. The Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism supports these student-run schemes by helping to archive student publications and by maintaining a list of current publications and active groups. 

Library of Student Publications

We are partnering with Wesleyan’s Special Collections and Archives to build a print and virtual library of student-run literary magazines, academic journals, and other publications. If you’d like to be included in the archive, just drop off three issues of your publication with Douglas Martin and/or send us a link at damartin@wesleyan.edu.

In the meantime, check out The Lavender and the more than 100 past dailies, monthlies, and yearlies that have been catalogued to date in the Wesleyan University Student Publications collection. When available, when you click on the title of a publication, under Scope and Contents you’ll see what the publication itself wrote as its statement of purpose. Those with long print runs such as The Ankh are catalogued in detail, too. You can also read many issues of Hermes, a literary magazine published from the mid-1970s until recently, on the Internet Archive. 

We are eager for copies of publications that may have ceased operations—or for information about their ongoing status, if they are still in press. Anyone out there have any issues of The Hangman’s Lime, Incite Magazine, Method Magazine, Mind Matters, The Pedestrian, Three by Three, The University Comics Anthology, Unlocked Magazine, or Wesleyan Critical Review? Please send them our way!

Current publications and active groups

It is in the nature of student groups that they form and fade as micro-generations of students arrive on campus, get excited about working together, and then graduate. So it can be hard to figure out which enterprises are up and running, and which have crossed their last finish line.

What follows below is our best guess, an admittedly partial list. Please let us know if you have additional or corrected information about the publications and groups below—or if you have a new enterprise to announce! Send an email to Douglas Martin at damartin@wesleyan.edu.

The Ankh: Wesleyan’s Student of Color Arts publication since 1985. For information, email theankh@wesleyan.edu or check out their website at wesankh.com.

The Arcadia Political Review: a student-run and non-partisan publication published each semester. For information, see their listing in WesNest.

Fray Magazine: a campus-focused fashion publication. Fray strives to foster an inclusive and open campus space where all students can express and explore their interest in fashion. Contact fraymagazine@gmail.com and see their listing in WesNest.

Intercut: a Wesleyan print and online film journal dedicated to quality writing and a variety of perspectives. Contact sdienstag@wesleyan.edu and see their listing in WesNest.

The Lavender: Wesleyan University's Bi-semester Poetry and Prose Magazine. 

LMAO: a comedic literary magazine published each semester. LMAO strives to provide a very welcoming environment for people of all writing experience, with a very open and creative agenda. Their hope is to make Wesleyan a little bit sillier. For information, see their listing in WesNest.

Noisy Visuals provides a space for students to collaborate across the arts, and to create greater overlap between the fields of film, music, literature, and performance. For information, see their listing in WesNest.

Ostranenie has a mailbox at Wes-Box 90751 and accepts submissions at samizdatpress(at)gmail(dot)com. It publishes prose, poems, prose poems, photos, drawing, paintings, rubbings, doodles, lists, documentation of 3D installations/sculptures, and collages.

Utterances: a submissions-based literary and arts magazine created by and for Asian and Asian American students. You can follow them on Instagram at utterances.wes and read their first issue.

Route 9: a bi-annual literary magazine open to the Wesleyan community and the larger Middletown community, seeking to celebrate all we can create together. For information, see their listing in WesNest. Route 9 presents The Lavender. 

WeScrive: La Rivista Italiana di Wesleyan is a student-written magazine in Italian. They have a full webpage and archive with current and past issues as well as contact information.

WeSLAM, Wesleyan’s Slam Poetry team, which travels to compete as well as organizes events on campus. They have a Facebook page and an email address: WeSlam(dot)wesleyan(at)gmail.com.

The Wesleyan Argus is the university’s twice-weekly student newspaper, established in 1868. It is the longest running twice-weekly student paper in the country! For information, contact Editors in Chief Hannah Docter-Loeb (hdocterloeb@wesleyan.edu) and Emma Smith (elsmith@wesleyan.edu) and see their listing in WesNest. The Wesleyan Argus is also seeking to offer paid reporting positions to students of color from low-income backgrounds to increase the accessibility of student journalism and take active strides toward making our newsroom more representative of the communities we cover. We want to provide a supportive space for all students interested in journalism and offer a holistic learning experience for all reporters, ranging from basic reporting skills to an understanding of the racist legacy of journalism. By creating an Argus Voices Fund organization in WesNest, we hope to provide a place for funds separate from general Argus funds to make sure this money is going directly to Argus Voices fellows. For information, see their website.

Wesleyan Book Buds collects books and redistributes them to children in elementary schools, literacy programs, religious centers, and other education programs, especially those programs that help low-income communities. The Book Buds organizes book drives, both on campus and in the Middletown community, in order to help bridge the literacy gap. For information, see their listing in WesNest.

The Wesleyan Book Club meets monthly to discuss books chosen by club members, plan events and organize activities to promote reading. For information, see their listing in WesNest. 

Wesleyan Business Review: a print and digital publication focusing on business, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, and more! Write for one of their four columns: The Macroeconomy, Environmental Economics, Technology, and Features. For information, see their listing in WesNest.

Wesleying: a 100% student-run and student-generated blog about all things Wesleyan—what goes on at Wes, what Wes students are doing, what Wes students care about..

WESU-FM is Wesleyan’s radio station, featuring student DJs as well as DJs from the surrounding Middletown community. For information, see their listing in WesNest.

The Writer’s Block, located at 156 High Street, is a small residential community for both first year and upperclass students interested in writing, whatever the form, and living with other writers. Residents have the opportunity to enjoy Wesleyan’s writing events and host their own discussions with faculty and writing fellows. The programming opportunities include student readings, open mics, book swaps, tutorials, reading circles and guest lectures, many linked to the University’s Distinguished Writers series. New writers are linked to more experienced ones, and to a network of Wesleyan authors, editors, and publishers, both on and off campus. For more information, visit the Writer’s Block Res Life page.

Writing Circle: a space for writers to read others’ works, and share and workshop their own pieces. Writing Circle will also help writers of all experience levels get their work into production. For information, see their listing in WesNest.