You may have seen the journals being passed around campus, stacked on tables or in display shelves- Clamor is UW Bothell’s annual literary and arts journal. They publish work not just from students, but community members too, and other people from around the world who submit their work to be published. It’s a fantastic way not just to explore the beautiful array of creative works that people share with the world, but to share works of your own!
I was an editor on the Clamor editorial board for two different years of the journal! I worked on both the 2024 and 2025 issues of Clamor. I wanted to share a little bit about my experience not just as a submitter but as an editor and encourage everybody to give publications a shot!
First of all, being an editor was super fun. It’s a class worth different credits each quarter – 3 credits in Autumn and Winter, and 4 credits in the Spring when the workload really ramps up. Having been an editor in different Winter and Spring quarters, I can tell you the workload is definitely more! Despite the heavy workload and less credits, however, it was a super valuable experience for me – not just to learn what the publication process for journals is like, but it also fulfilled my IPR requirement for my IAS major! You can learn more about these IPR requirements here, but Clamor is a fantastic way to fulfill this requirement and have a ton of fun in the process!
The work you do for the journal also depends on what teams you join – for instance, you could work on advertising and marketing the journal, communicating with potential submitters via email, showing up to classes to talk to students, organizing fun events, and plenty more. No matter what you like to do, there’s a niche for you on the Clamor board!
Along with individual duties, there are also full-board duties. The editorial board will go through submissions in smaller groups, and then bring anything they aren’t sure about to the larger group. Additionally, the group as a whole decides how the journal will look, be organized, and how to go about putting it together. We also review each others’ work as editors, which was tons of fun, as I got to view and compliment others’ work with them in the room. As an editor in the Winter quarter, I was required to submit my own work to the journal, but was not for Spring quarter as all our pieces were decided upon.
Speaking of submitting work, I’ve also published a poem of my own in the 2025 edition of the journal. You can see it below here, or check out the digital version of the 2025 journal! The process was super easy- you choose the type of media you’re submitting and then fill out a form. They will accept not only written pieces, but visual art pieces, and even audio and video pieces to go on the website! There’s also a submission form for collaborative pieces, if you have put something together with your friends. You can find all of these forms and guidelines for submissions here!
When you fill out the form, you detail the name of your piece, upload your piece, and add some other details, and then it goes to the board for review. If it passes the review process, you may be contacted for minor revisions, but then your piece will be added to the list for publishing!
Once the journal is done, there’s a launch party every spring for the new journal edition. The launch parties are tons of fun, so whether you contribute to the journal or not, I recommend going! There are opportunities to get free food, lots of free goodies, and copies of the journal. Usually we have a huge table of free food and snacks for people to grab, and lots of tables to sit and chat at and read free copies of that year’s edition. It’s usually either in the top floor of the ARC or in the North Creek Events Center. We usually have live readings, too, which are not only a fantastic way to hear people’s pieces performed live, but to perform your own pieces live if you’re interested in sharing your art!
In general, I absolutely recommend joining the Clamor board or submitting a piece of your own! Submissions are open now, and will be open until January 31st, 2026. If you want to learn more about becoming an editor, you can email Professor Sabina Livadariu at sabliv@uw.edu. You can also find out more information on their website, here. Additionally, you can view past archived editions of Clamor on the website as well, or you can read the print editions by checking out the Campus Publications section of the library up on the third floor, in LB2! To get there, head to the third floor, and then when you’re facing away from the stairs, turn left, then right, then head over the skybridge. It’s tons of fun to read back in old versions and see what people have written and published, whether or not you want to join the board or submit to the journal yourself!