Our History
13th Floor Magazine—named for the floor often left unnumbered in buildings lest it bring bad luck—began in 2013 with a team of dedicated students who wanted to edit a publication featuring work on the periphery, upholding the promise of its name. The journal was published under the guidance of professor emerita Lisa Sandlin until her retirement in 2017. Dr. Lisa Fay Coutley then assumed the role of Faculty Advisor, and in 2018 prepared to bring the journal’s production into the classroom setting with the help of its first Lit Mag Editor-in-Chief, UNO BFA alumna, Sophie Clark.
In 2019, 26 students in WRWS 3010: Literary Magazine produced a spring issue featuring an astronaut on the cover and remarkable work inside, which set the standard moving forward. In 2019, Literary Magazine crews produced two issues (spring and fall) under Dr. Coutley’s guidance, and the team implemented the inaugural Editors’ Choice Awards judged by guest writers who selected three winners (1st 2nd 3rd) in all four genres. Those winners were the first to be featured at the end of the year Launch Party, which has become a celebration to end each semester with a big artistic bang.
During the pandemic, students produced a single spring issue, and each year thereafter, Lit Mag, as we call it, has been offered in the spring of each year. Each spring, a new editorial team selected by Dr. Coutley (through an application process, which takes place late spring) produces a single issue, featuring UNO’s most compelling artists across all written genres and in the visual arts.
As a team: students select the cover art from among the journal’s submissions (voting for the winning piece of art and contributing ideas to its final design); genre teams led by genre editors in Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Visual Art select the work included in each issue; the student serving as Layout & Design Editor creates the cover and lays out the issue in InDesign; and guest judges select the winners featured at the Launch Party in May, which was hosted by the UNO Art Gallery from 2019–2024, and as of 2025 has grown so large it is now held in the Black Box Theatre.
In spring 2025, the journal was pleased to feature its first screenplay by Jackson Kuhlmann, selected as an Editors’ Choice Award winner and acted out in the Black Box by UNO theatre students. Each year the Lit Mag crew expands, finding new ways to add to the journal’s interdisciplinary initiatives.
The journal receives hundreds of submissions/year and has an overall acceptance rate of 10-12%.
Read more about how to submit to 13th Floor Magazine here and meet our Editorial Team here.
13th Floor Magazine gained so much momentum it inspired an Editing & Publishing Minor, now offered by the Writer’s Workshop. Find details here. We hope you’ll join us in class or in our pages!