In the days of my youth, in the days of my youth,
I lay in West Twelfth Street, writhing with Truth.
—E.B. White
12th Street: Journal of Writing and Democracy, is an award-winning literary journal that is edited and published online by students in the Writing and Democracy Honors Program (WDH). The WDH program offers undergraduate students at The New School an opportunity to investigate language and democratic expression across a spectrum of cultural, political, social, and artistic experiences. The program fosters a cohesive community of undergraduate writers through regular student readings and other peer-group activities.
12th Street presents creative work that engages with discourse on the role of the writer in the world and literature as an engine of democracy. It is a forum to amplify and celebrate a diverse New School student body, foster and experiment with emergent ideas, and elevate marginalized voices. 12th Street began in the 1940s and was re-launched in 2008. In 2011, 12th Street won the Director’s Prize award for both design and content at the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference.
Journal History
Masthead Spring 2026
Editor-in-Chief – Matt O’Connor-Mattila
Managing Editor – Zoe Velazquez
Senior Genre Editor – Ayaana Sabb
Senior Fiction Editor – Amelia Stewart
Fiction Editor – Annabelle Wang
Poetry Editor – Sana Azim
Nonfiction Editor – Eva Brachfeld
Interviews Editor – Hunter Diaz
Art and Multimedia Editor – Di Murray
Social Media Editor – Annabelle Wang
Reviews Editor – Emery Shepard
Contributions Editor – Jai Holliman
Faculty Advisor – Theodore (ted) Kerr
Can I publish on this site?
Our submissions are now closed, as we finalize our Spring issue. Submissions will open again with the Fall semester, in September.
All students, faculty, staff, and alumni of The New School, including and especially Writing and Democracy Honors program alumns, are urged to submit! If you have suggestions or requests, email faculty advisor Theodore (ted) Kerr at kerrt@newschool.edu.
