I tend to view myself in phases of my life: the little girl, too full of curiosity and oddly shaped clothes. The preteen who is suddenly, deeply aware of the fact that she exists in this world and other people can see her. The teen who shrunk quite like Alice did when she drank the bottle labeled “drink me” and cried herself into something that can fit through a keyhole or door’s mouth. The sickly 21-year-old celebrating legality with a new medication infusion instead of sugared-up vodka. The now adult who wants to believe she finally is figuring things out, but has found that the version she wishes to be is still quite the opposite of the soft spoken sweet silhouette of a body that my brain follows around.

There are a lot of labels I can fit myself into. I am an INFJ. I am a Libra. I’m an Enneagram 4w5. I love taking obscure personality quizzes that give me even more labels. I think it’s because I’m still figuring out how I perceive myself. Maybe I can’t quite tell you who I am, but I can tell you what is real about my life and my death.

I am going to die. Well, my liver is. But technically speaking yours will too. We all die. But when I was fifteen I was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. A mouth full, I know. It’s PSC for short, and while I could use this space to write an academic paper on the medical ins and outs of this disease, all that really matters is there’s no cure, no treatment, and it kills. It’s been hard not to let something so massively life changing not leak into every aspect of my identity. I am a woman, and I am sick. I am a student, and I am ill. I am a daughter, and I have to be cared for. I am a girlfriend, and I feel like a burden. Everywhere I turn there is a reflection that says I am dying a lot faster than you are.

Being diagnosed with such a scary illness makes an existentialism speed-run quite possible in a few short years. Who am I if I am not alive? What do I want to do for a living? What is the purpose of working towards anything if I might not live to see the fulfillment of it? Does my cat love me the way I love him? What is the point of writing these words for you to read? What is writing? How much longer do I have left? How is my brain reading and writing at the same time? When is my next dose? My next doctor’s appointment?

This line of dreadful thinking is just as degenerative as my disease state. I didn’t want to become a victim to my illness. I know I will die, but so will all of us. The real victory is not letting it destroy and consume what I have left of life. After my parents’ divorce, I found myself more motivated than ever to become something greater than the damaged goods my body left me in. So who am I if not this sick girl?

I’m not quite sure if I should explain what I want to be, what I think I am, who my peers see me as, my Mom’s opinion that makes me, her “tweet pea,” out to be a princess with a sword and book in hand. (Hi, Mom. I know you’re reading this, I love you.) Or maybe my Dad’s version of me that probably includes the words “demonic” “disrespectful” and or “evil”. (Yes, unfortunately, I’m so serious. And no, don’t worry, I am not in contact with him.) What do they say? Everyone is the villain in someone else’s story? Something like that. I think somehow I am all of these versions of myself. I’m still the little girl with her ducky blanky. I am still the boyish kid running to catch up to my older brother and his friends. I am most definitely the very strange child who proudly wore the shirt with a puffy paint drawing of her cat wearing a crown like everyday of fifth grade. I am a teacher to small children and also a student myself. I am quite the introvert, but I get very bold and very loud when I feel that anyone might need me or there is even the slightest sort of injustice. I am always looking for something new to learn about. I still love cats. I am chronically ill, and I am going to die. But since I am still here, you must endure these words. It is a privilege to even be able to consider what I am and how you might think of me. Therefore, I would like to reduce myself to the only thing which allows me to be all of this: alive.

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Are you looking to submit your latest poem, piece of fiction or nonfiction, or artwork to one of the exceptional undergraduate journals in the country? Look no further than the following list!

1. 30 North

30 North is the national undergraduate literary journal of North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. 30 North publishes undergraduate poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and artwork in their annual print journal. They also publish author interviews and reviews conducted and written by their staff online. Currently taking submissions!

2. The Albion Review

The Albion Review is a national undergraduate literary journal based out of Albion College in Albion, Michigan. The Review publishes works of short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art on an annual basis. Submissions currently closed.

3. Applause

Applause is a national literary arts and culture magazine housed at the University of Arkansas -Fort Smith open for submissions from undergraduates around the world. They publish poetry, fiction, essays, and art. Submissions for Spring 2026 close February 16, 2026!

4. The Blank Quill

The Blank Quill is a digital literary magazine focused on platforming BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers. Submissions for Spring 2026 issue close February 28, 2026!

5. The Blue Route

The Blue Route is an international literary journal for undergraduate writers based out of Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. They publish works of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and artwork biannually. Currently closed for submissions, next submission window will open in August.

6. Collision Literary Magazine

Collision Literary Magazine is an international literary journal for undergraduate writers and is housed at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They publish works of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and artwork annually. Submissions close February 15, 2026!

7. Dark River Review

Dark River Review is the national undergraduate literary journal of Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama. They publish works of short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art on an annual basis. Currently accepting submissions!

8. Echo Literary Review

Echo Review is a literary magazine devoted to history, whether that be a past relative or the Napoleonic wars. The are a proud champion of young, marginalized, and otherwise systematically disadvantaged writers. While history has a tendency to favor certain groups over others, Echo takes great pride in being an active advocate in closing these gaps. Currently closed for submissions.

9. Eclipse Literary Magazine

Eclipse is a literary magazine that celebrates the power of creativity in all its forms, including visual art, prose, poetry, essays, and music. Our mission is to showcase user submissions in a space where diverse voices and artistic expression can shine. Whether through words or images, we aim to foster a community that values and uplifts creativity in all its depths. Currently accepting submissions!

10. Equinox Literary Magazine

Equinox Literary Magazine is a national undergraduate literary magazine based out of the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas. They publish works of fiction, poetry, hybrid writing, short screenplays, and visual art annually. They also host the David Jauss Fiction Prize and the Jo McDougall Poetry Prize each year. Currently accepting submissions!

11. Furrow

Furrow is the national undergraduate literary journal of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They publish a print issue each spring and feature new work on their website regularly. They accept unpublished poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and comics. Submissions close February 27, 2026.

12. Glass Mountain

Glass Mountain is an undergraduate literary journal at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. They accept previously unpublished fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, art, and everything in between on an annual basis. Currently accepting submissions!

13. Green Blotter Literary Magazine

Green Blotter Literary Magazine is a literary magazine produced by undergraduate students at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. They publish works of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and artwork on an annual basis. Currently accepting submissions!

14. Inscape

Inscape is an international literary magazine published at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. They publish unpublished fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art annually. Submissions will reopen on August 1, 2026.

15. The Kudzu Review

The Kudzu Review is the national undergraduate literary journal of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. The Review publishes works of short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art biannually. Accepting submissions until March 27, 2026!

16. Mistake House

Mistake House is Principia College’s digital literary journal for students and professional writers and artists. Based in Elsah, Illinois, they publish works of poetry, fiction, and artwork on an annual basis. Mistake House also offers three Editor’s Prizes of $100 each year: one for fiction, one for poetry, and one for photography. Submissions open until March 15, 2026.

17. Mosaic Art & Literary Journal

Mosaic is the University of California, Riverside’s undergraduate literary journal. In 1959, Mosaic began as a small group of poets, and they’re still going strong nearly 60 years later, having expanded into a home for all writers, musicians, and artists. They are completely undergraduate-run, and publish one volume of prose, poetry, and art every year. Currently taking submissions!

18. Outrageous Fortune

Outrageous Fortune is the first online literary magazine created for undergraduates by undergraduates. Based out of Mary Baldwin University in Staunton, Virginia, Outrageous Fortune publishes works of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, film, and visual art in their issues. Currently taking submissions! The deadline to submit for Volume 16 is March 31, 2026.

19. Polaris Literary Magazine

Polaris Literary Magazine is the national undergraduate journal of arts and literature at Ohio Northern University located in Ada, Ohio. They publish works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and visual art on an annual basis. Currently closed for submissions.

20. Prairie Margins

Prairie Margins is a national undergraduate literary journal based out of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Prairie Margins publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, and photography. Currently taking submissions!

21. Red Cedar Review

Red Cedar Review is the longest-running undergraduate publication in the United States. Housed at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, Red Cedar Review publishes works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art every two years. Accepting submissions August 1st – October 15th, 2026.

22. Runestone

Runestone is a national undergraduate literary journal housed at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They accept unpublished works of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and digital storytelling. Accepting submissions April 1st – October 1st of each year.

23. Sink Hollow

Sink Hollow is an international undergraduate literary magazine based out of Utah State University in Logan, Utah. They publish works of fiction, poetry, hybrid writing, short screenplays, and visual art annually. Submissions are open until March 31, 2026!

24. Short Vine

Short Vine is the international undergraduate literary journal of the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. They publish works of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and photography on an annual basis. Currently closed for submissions.

25. Violet Marginz

Violet Marginz, formerly The Alchemist Review, is a national undergraduate literary journal from the University of Illinois-Springfield. They publish prose, creative nonfiction, translation, poetry, and visual arts annually. Submissions close February 20, 2026.

26. Quirk

Quirk is the Literary and Visual Arts journal of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.
They are entirely run by student-editors seeking to give artists a creative outlet to showcase their talents on a national scale. They are looking for originality and authenticity: poets, creative writers, and visual artists. Currently closed to submissions, will reopen again in Spring 2026.

27. The Oakland

The Oakland Arts Review is an international undergraduate literary and arts journal out of Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Their ambition is to become one of the most prominent literary journals publishing undergraduate writers throughout the world. Currently taking submissions!

28. The Allegheny Review

The Allegheny Review, in print since 1983, is the oldest national undergraduate literary magazine in the United States dedicated exclusively to undergraduate works of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction. Published annually, the periodical showcases some of the best literature the nation’s undergraduates have to offer. The magazine is and always has been edited and produced by students at Allegheny College. The Allegheny Review considers submissions from undergraduate writers year-round. Currently taking submissions!

29. The Sucarnichee Review

Established in 1974 and named for the Sucarnochee River that runs near the University of West Alabama, The Sucarnochee Review is published annually by the University’s Department of English and History. They are student-led and student-edited and believe strongly in the value of amplifying student voices. They accept submissions year round. Currently taking submissions!

30. The Tower

The Tower is a student-run literary magazine at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. They publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and hybrid works. Their annual print edition comes out in the spring, and they accept submissions in the fall of every year. Currently closed for submissions.

Right from the first page of Roseanne Freed’s Your Name Is a Poem (Picture Show Press, 2024), the theme of motherhood takes over the page, as does the importance of names. This poetry collection is written from the point of view of a parent and the grief process of losing their child to cancer. Freed captures the full arc of motherhood, from the joy of naming a child to the ache of loving and letting go. Centered around a daughter named Mahalia, the poems explores motherly devotion, identity, sibling relationships, and family resilience. Throughout these poems, we readers see the mother trying to grasp any piece of her daughter in all of the memories that she has with her, starting from childbirth and as she grew older. 

The first poem, also the title poem, gives readers a first glimpse of the daughter and the power that the name Mahalia holds for the Freed: “Before you were born, / I knew you were someone special / and needed a unique name; / there are too many girls called / Jennifer, Jessica, or Jane” (Freed 1). As we continue to read, the poem “Our Time Together, Too Short” reads like a lyrical biography, tracing Mahalia’s growth from a baby to a selfless adult. Mahalia’s choice to bike to chemotherapy appointments shows readers her strength and values. The final line, “I loved her even when I didn’t love her” (Freed 5), encapsulates the various elements of parenting: unconditional love, complex emotions, and the pain of watching a child suffer. Freed includes bits of her memories with her daughter right from the moment she gave birth:

From these memories that the speaker decides to share with us, we learn about Mahalia’s experiences through the mother’s lens, the emotions she goes through and how she must keep herself together for her daughter’s sake. 

Different from the previous poems, “A Fearful Thing” shifts the voice to second person, as if Freed is speaking directly to her daughter. In doing so, Freed uses “you” to capture the last conversation that mother and daughter had together before Mahalia passes. Food tends to be a source of comfort during times of grief and struggle. The mother is holding onto this last moment by using a bowl of lentil soup, a dish that now holds such deep meaning. The first stanza of the poem illustrates the warmness of food and how it brings this family together as the speaker says, “A pot of my lentil soup, / our staple meal through the Canadian / winters of your childhood” (Freed 10). In the last stanzas of this poem, Freed writes:

The poetic voice is that of someone who has loved deeply and is now left with the unbearable silence after goodbye. A theme that stuck out to me in this poem is the simplicity of soup. Freed begins “A Fearful Thing” with the line, “Soup, I thought…” (10). This leap from diagnosis to the feeling of home, thinking of soup, encapsulates a mother’s instinct to comfort, nourish, and do something. The lentil soup, which is a staple from childhood, becomes a symbol of continuity, maternal love, and later, unspoken resentment. 

In Your Name Is a Poem, we see a pain that the daughter projects onto her mother through anger. In the poem, “A Week After She Left Us My Therapist Told Me,” the mother seeks help to grieve through her daughter’s loss, but still her daughter’s pain and range from her battle of cancer still finds ways to show up in this grieving process. This poem is shorter compared to the other ones but holds a lot of power. The poem’s length directly mirrors the emotional state of the speaker: raw, constrained, and filled with unresolved tension, each word having weight. The mother/speaker finds it difficult to experience the emotions that she has as she mentions: “If I allow myself to weep, / I hear her— // Stop making it about you” (Freed 18). Since Freed decides to add dialogue, reflecting something Mahalia might have said, the choice of words mirror an upset tone that her daughter would have expressed. Her voice echoes in this poem; even if it’s only projected through Freed, it’s now embedded so deeply that she controls her own grief.

Your Name is a Poem is touching, captivating and filled with different phases of emotions. Freed shares vulnerable moments with the reader during and after her daughter’s battle with cancer. Within this collection, we get a glimpse of what her family went through; we still feel Freed’s intense reality across 35 pages of poetry.

Your Name Is a Poem is available from Picture Show Press

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Angela Çene is a poet, raised Massachusetts by two Albanian Immigrants. She enjoys writing about the body, & how it relates to the world & our experiences. After earning her Bachelors in Writing, Literature & Publishing from Emerson College, she is currently preparing to apply to law schools. Angela enjoys traveling & finding new restaurants.