The Tower 2025-2026 Theme: "Passages"
This year The Tower is seeking fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, visual art, and hybrid submissions from undergraduate students at any university or college in the state of Minnesota pertaining to the theme of “Passages.”
Tunnels, corridors, roads, and rivers. Doors behind bookcases, trapdoors under the stairs, paths of desire cutting through the woods. A journey, a quest, a voyage. Passages take many forms. In their simplest sense, passages bring you from point A to point B, from beginnings to ends, from firsts to lasts. Passages happen through space, through time, through individuals and communities. It’s growth, it’s movement, it’s change.
How did you (or we) get here? Where have you (we) been? Where are you (we) going? Passages come from a choice to change; they result from pure inertia, necessity, resignation, and sometimes something in between.
We accept submissions starting on October 10th, 2025 through our Submittable, which is accessible on The Tower website. Please include a short cover letter with your contact information and a brief author bio written in the third person, suitable for publication including your year, major, and institute of study. Further specifications are available in each genre’s Submittable. Submissions will be read during the fall semester, and the issue will be published during the spring semester. Please email us at [email protected] with any further questions.
Submissions close January 5th, 2026.