Quarto Magazine

Quarto is the undergraduate literary magazine of Columbia University’s Creative Writing Department. It is a student-run magazine that publishes the best of Columbia’s undergraduate writers from all four of Columbia’s undergraduate colleges. The Creative Writing Department provides support and a faculty advisor to the magazine, though the editorial board has representatives from departments across campus. Quarto is dedicated to renewal—to changing formats and editorial boards and exploring new opportunities to recognize writers—all in the effort to keep up with the ever-changing literary landscape on campus, and to give each magazine a fresh voice. Quarto was created in 1948 and housed in the School of General Studies. In 1998, the magazine expanded to serve the entire undergraduate writing community. In 2007, with the creation of the Creative Writing Department, the magazine found its current home in an environment dedicated to craft and excellence in writing. Quarto has published Pulitzer Prize winners, the US Poet Laureate Louise Glück, best-selling authors such as Kim Wozencraft, successful playwrights like Adam Szymkowicz, poets, screenwriters, and art critics. Members of its editorial staff have gone on to start their own literary magazines and some, like Edwidge Dandicat, have found literary success themselves. What never changes is Quarto's dedication to find the best undergraduate writing at Columbia—and the proof can be seen every year printed in its pages.