The Literary Magazine of the Philolexian Society
Columbia University · Established MDCCCII
For Contributors
Submissions to Surgam are read year-round and considered for the next available issue.
Surgam accepts work in any form — poetry, short fiction, translations, essays, reviews, photography, and visual art — from members of the Columbia community. Send your submission, as a single attachment when possible, to the address below. Include a short cover note with your school and class year. The editors meet shortly before each issue closes to read, argue, and decide.
Single attachment preferred. Include your school and class year.
All members of the Columbia community are welcome to submit. Pieces published in the Fall and Spring issues are eligible for the Philolexian Prize, awarded each year by the Columbia English Department to two written works. Eligibility to win the Prize is limited to undergraduates of Columbia College, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of General Studies, and Barnard College.
Strong voice; surprise; craft; the willingness to take a real swing. We read every submission carefully, and the editorial board's first principle is that Surgam's job is to publish work that would not exist otherwise. We are equally fond of careful traditional forms and entirely impatient experiments; we are not fond of work that hedges. If you are unsure whether your piece is a good fit, send it.
Submissions are acknowledged by reply. Decisions are made shortly before each issue's editorial deadline and communicated by email. Pieces not accepted for an issue are sometimes held over for consideration in the following issue; the editors will tell you if that is the case.
The Winter issue is given over to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest, an annual evening of deliberately catastrophic verse, judged by a faculty panel and won, traditionally, with great solemnity. Entry is open to all and submission instructions are on the Kilmer page.