The second edition of “Passages: Revised,” the student-run literary journal that collects and celebrates the best of Ashland University’s undergraduate literature, is now open for submissions.
This marks the second year of “Passages: Revised,” which seeks to pick up the torch of the original “Passages” journal that ran from 2007-2015.
This revival is thanks in part to the work of Josh Carpenter, who serves as editor-in-chief of “Passages: Revised.”
He said, “We had the original “Passages” literary journal here… they always wanted to keep it going, but eventually, it just stopped. Then last spring, Elliott Blake, who’s a recent graduate, and I were talking back and forth, and we were like, ‘we can do this.”
The journal is fully run by undergraduate students, including fiction editor Macy Gannon, nonfiction editor Lauren Gulden, Noah Clegg as poetry editor, and Nora Bacon heading the brand-new academic branch of the journal.
“Passages: Revised” accepts fiction, non-fiction, poetry, art pieces and academic writing.
“We want to have as many submissions as possible. It would be an amazing time if I could flood my editors with too much stuff to do,” said Carpenter.
“You don’t have to be an English major to submit to “Passages”… I’ve had people in math majors submit poetry that could have gone toe to toe with creative writing majors.”
For fiction and non-fiction writing, submissions must be 3500 words or fewer, and poems must be submitted in sets of three. For academic submissions, students can contact a professor to submit a piece of writing from their class on the student’s behalf.
The organization is also hosting a flash fiction contest, for which writers must write a short fictional story in 750 words or fewer based on the prompt, “I must confess…”
The submission window for “Passages: Revised” and the academic journal is open until Oct. 31, and the flash fiction contest deadline is Oct. 12.
After submissions close, Carpenter hopes to have the printed volume out by the middle of the spring 2026 semester.
“We charge about $7.50 for the book… we normally host a big release party, so probably be there… if you are published in it, you get a free contributor copy,” he said.
Carpenter also offered some words of encouragement to prospective writers. He said, “Storytelling has always been important to me, and I think it’s important that everyone should try even if they think that they’re not good at it. Everybody has a story to tell… the worst thing that we do is say no.”
To learn more about “Passages: Revised,” and submit your work for consideration, check out their Instagram page @aupassages_revised.
