For Students

The Florida Review is UCF’s national/international print literary magazine, now going on 45 years of publication. Aquifer: The Florida Review Online was created in 2017 as an interdisciplinary arts journal to supplement the print journal. Both publish poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and graphic narrative. When Aquifer was created, author interviews and book reviews moved to the online format where they receive a wider audience. In addition, Aquifer publishes visual arts portfolios, short experimental films, and digital stories & electronic narratives. These are curated by faculty in Art History, Film, and Digital Media, and students in those departments help with those art forms. Since 2012, we also publish an annual chapbook in honor of former editor Jeanne Leiby, who passed away in 2011. We do a lot of stuff, and lots of people are involved.

One of the first things you should do if you are interested in working with TFR or Aquifer is to take a look at our masthead to see all the people who are involved on an ongoing basis.

Working with a national/international publication can be demanding and rewarding for students. This page is designed to help you understand the options.

Graduate Students

There are, now, four different levels of graduate student involvement with TFR (as we refer to the whole organization in shorthand).

  • GTAs. These are assigned annually by the English department. PLEASE NOTE: YOU MAY NOT ASK FOR THESE, AS THEY ARE ASSIGNED AND OUT OF THE EDITOR’S CONTROL. Their main responsibility is to work with CRW 4724 students by grading their work and holding numerous office hours so the undergrads can get experience proofreading and doing other publications-related tasks. CRW 4724 is the quasi-course/internship focused on TFR (with separate sections for the print and online journals). Unfortunately, due to the heavy load of grading, the GTAs often don’t get much involvement in reading submissions or doing editorial work.
  • Graduate Literary Magazines Editing Course. CRW 6721: Literary Journal Editing, this course is new to our curriculum in Fall 2019. PLEASE NOTE THAT IT WILL NOT BE OFFERED EVERY SEMESTER; RATHER IT IS AN OCCASIONAL OFFERING. In this course, students will look at larger issues of editing and curating; consider the history and role of small publications; and participate hands-on in the real work of editing and producing Aquifer: TFR Online, with some production work on the print Florida Review as well. This course is open to any MFA, LCT, or T&T student.
  • MFA interns. When a section of CRW 4724 is offered that is focused on Aquifer, we have a group of four MFA interns who read submissions, lead online undergrad discussion groups, and help lead the face-to-face editorial meetings with the undergrads. It’s a great combination of non-GTA teaching experience and editorial experience. If schedules allow, they also have some sessions with their group in the TFR office, proofreading, fact-checking, copyediting, cropping author photos, and preparing work for publication online. Please note that this 3-credit internship is usually limited to 4 MFA interns per semester, though it’s possible that additional interns might work on other projects. All internships must be approved by the program director.
  • Zero-credit interns and volunteers. If anyone is interested in getting a look behind the scenes and reading submissions online in Submittable, they can sign up for a zero-credit internship and/or simply volunteer to help out. For some students this is a great experience; for others it can be lonely and not that satisfying to simply read submissions at home alone. Although some basic how-to information is provided, and we occasionally set up a face-to-face session, it depends on the student to self-motivate and reach out with any questions. Students have to be self-motivated to get the most out of it. Please note that the zero-credit internships are extracurricular and do not count toward the MFA credit requirements.
  • Further opportunities. Just recently, UCF’s interdisciplinary Texts & Technology PhD program has begun offering:
    • a new curricular track in Editing, Publishing, and Interdisciplinary Curating (EPIC), and
    • a “Fast Track” option for qualified MFA graduates that often allows them to finish both MFA and PhD in a total of five years. If you are interested in these options, feel free to address any questions to Dr. Anastasia Salter, Director of Graduate Programs, at anastasia.salter@ucf.edu.

Undergraduate Students

  • Please note that most of our student interns are Creative Writing and English Lit majors and minors.
  • Most undergrads are involved through enrollment in CRW 4724: The Florida Review Internship, and there are pre-reqs that help ensure you’re ready to comment on professionally written work. This is an open enrollment course, but please know that it isn’t a typical course. Please note that each section of CRW 4724 focuses on either the print magazine or the online magazine, and the courses are slightly different.
  • Different sections of CRW 4724. The print course focuses more on in-office experience with print production, proofreading, and fact-checking. The Aquifer course focuses more on editorial meetings.
  • Not a student publication. As an intern, you will be helping with a variety of tasks, and giving opinions about a small portion of the submissions we receive, but you will not be choosing the final work that is published in the journal. This is not a student literary magazine (that’s Cypress Dome!). Remember that masthead? Those are the folks who make final editorial decisions.
  • In addition to editorial interns, every semester we seek out one or more ad/PR/social media interns. These internships can vary from a full three-credit internship sponsored by a faculty member in a relevant department (and with TFR acting as the employer), a three-credit internship in English, or a zero-credit internship where it appears on your audit but doesn’t require more tuition. If you are interested in
  • There may also be opportunities for involvement through Film, Art History, and/or Digital Media.
  • Further opportunities. The UCF English department has recently begun offering an Undergraduate Certificate in Editing and Publishing. CRW 4724 counts (and can count a second time) toward this certificate. If you are interested in the publishing world, we highly recommend that you check it out.
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