The Chestatee Review, the University of North Georgia’s student-run literary magazine, is releasing a double issue in the spring that includes the usual annual contest winners and a special retrospective section of works from the past 29 issues.
Faculty Advisor for Chestatee Review, Senior Lecturer of English, Ezekiel Black, says student staff members will “try to choose the best poem, best short story, best one-act play of each decade” which will be added to the end of the 2026 issue. They would do more, but the issue will already be about 50 pages thicker than usual, he says.
Each year, students submit work across genres such as poetry, short stories, dramas, formal essays and visual art, to contests. Of the submitted works, Chestatee Review publishes the top three written works from each category along with a select number of submitted art works. The Chestatee Review accepts works during the Fall semester through the Gothic Writing Contest and the Thomas Sauret Contest.
Other contests included in the magazine, but managed by the English department, are the Kathryn Hinds Memorial Contest, the John Ingrisano Memorial Contest, and the Inman Quill Essay Contest.
Faculty Advisor and Senior Lecturer Jeremiah Johnson says that anyone can submit to the magazine contests. He says, “If you like to write, submit something. It doesn’t matter what your major is. It doesn’t matter classes you’re taking.”
Johnson says the goal of Chestatee Review is to “showcase the best writing that the undergraduate student body has” so we can “foster and get our undergraduate writing out there.”
The Chestatee Review functions both as a club and a pair of courses in magazine production. Students can find copies in the magazine racks in the lobby of Dahlonega’s Dunlap Building and the coffee shop in Gainesville’s Nesbitt Building.
Students in the club plan contests, organize events and encourage submissions, while students in the classes design flyers in the fall and design the entire issue. This structure, Black said, “models a lot of what publishing houses do” and gives students practical skills in editing, design and event management.
Beyond campus, the Chestatee Review regularly competes at the Southern Literary Festival, an annual undergraduate writing conference. UNG students have earned recognition in multiple categories over the years, and the magazine itself has also earned awards.
All students are also invited to join the open-mic event the magazine manages every semester.
The next open mic is a Halloween event called the PoeDown, which is Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on both the Gainesville and Dahlonega campuses. In Gainesville, it will be in the Nesbitt Building, Room 5171, and on the Dahlonega Campus, it will be in the Library Technology Center, Room 382.
