High-Rise Writer
"Without 13th Floor Magazine, I don’t think I’d be as confident as I am now."
The 13th Floor Magazine is a student-run magazine that is a product of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Writers Workshop program. Originally created in 2013, the magazine’s goal was to become a platform for students, alumni, and faculty to submit their creative works for publication. Since its inception, the 13th Floor Magazine has become a biannual showcase of the creative side of the School of the Arts.
A wide arrangement of pieces are accepted as submissions by the 13th Floor Magazine, ranging from poetry and fiction/nonfiction writing pieces to art such as photography and design. The magazine encourages students to submit all forms of creative and experimental works.
“We want to share diverse and creative work from many different areas, and it is open to everyone in the university,” says BFA graduate Maritza Estrada, who is the former editor-in-chief, currently pursuing her MFA and working as a graduate teaching associate at Arizona State University.
Two issues of the magazine are released every year, during the spring and fall semesters. Students and faculty are allowed to submit pieces at any time, but must submit by October 31 for consideration of the spring edition, and March 31 for the fall edition. Guidelines for submissions are available on their website.
The team behind 13th Floor Magazine spends around 6 months to complete an issue. After they have all of the eligible submissions accounted for, they begin reading and reviewing all of the pieces to narrow down which should be approved for the magazine. Next comes the editing process, where the copy editors read through all the pieces to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical errors. Finally, the editor-in-chief goes through every piece once again before the magazine is published.
13th Floor Magazine is available for purchase as an ebook through Amazon, and physical copies are sold through their publisher at Blurb.com. The ebook is available for free during the first week of the fall and spring semesters. Physical copies of the magazine are also sold at the Writer’s Workshop Reading Series held in the Weber Fine Arts building at UNO. This event provides an opportunity to meet with the students running the magazine, as while as many of the writers who are featured in the magazine.
Maritza first joined 13th Floor Magazine when she was a sophomore at UNO, where she started out as an intern and worked her up to become the editor-in-chief of the magazine. Maritza initially joined the magazine after being recommended by one the its team members. She had always looked up to her fellow classmates who were a part of the magazine, and has always felt grateful that she joined.
“Everyone that is in our team is very into their writing and their art,” Maritza says. “So I recommend anyone who is interested in writing, creativity, and art to email us and if you are interested in being a copy editor.”
Being involved in the magazine helped Maritza improve her writing tremendously. The experience also helped her improve her confidence through learning about the business aspect of running a magazine.
“Without 13th Floor Magazine, I don’t think I’d be as confident as I am now with meeting people and doing class visits, which I love doing, and promoting the magazine. As long as you have a main goal in mind, I think that’s what pushes me and gives me that drive to do so much for the magazine.”
By Ryan Lance
CFAM School of Communication / Journalism and Media Communications major