The Birch Update and Call for Submissions

[Tanah Spencer]

Columbia University's The Birch is the nation’s first undergraduate journal of 
Eastern European and Eurasian culture, founded in 2004.  In an effort to 
maintain the quality of our journal, we have elected to produce a larger, single 
issue that will be available for students in the spring instead of two, smaller 
issues typically distributed in the fall and spring.  This decision was made 
primarily to allow contributors to have more time to develop their ideas and 
projects so that we can continue to produce a journal that students look 
forward to engaging with, cherish, and respect. 

Our publication retains the same structure.  It consists of three sections: 
Creative Writing (poetry, prose, non-fiction essays), Literary Criticism, and 
Culture & Affairs (including historical and political analysis). We also welcome 
original photography, translations, and political cartoons. 

For this year’s issue, we encourage undergraduate students to submit high-
quality pieces of 1500-2000 words. We particularly seek writing on less-
explored topics as well as articles on current affairs in the region; please keep 
in mind that our journal covers a wide territory including Central and Eastern 
European states and Central Asia.  While most of our content is in English, we 
look forward to reading submissions written in Russian or other languages of 
the region and envision an issue that is less Russo-centric.

If your students are unfamiliar with The Birch, we kindly suggest that you tell 
them to visit our website, thebirchonline.org, where they can read a selection 
of issues, or visit our blog, http://www.thebirchjournal.blogspot.com/. 

We hope some of your undergraduates will take advantage of this opportunity 
and submit to us at thebirchjournal at gmail.com by February 14, 2010.  Please 
note that all submissions should include the writer’s name, e-mail address, 
and institution.

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