A new day has dawned for Carnegie Mellon’s longest-running literary magazine

By Jennifer Bortner and Dylan Rossi

This year, The Oakland Review celebrated its 50th anniversary. Only the party we threw wasn’t raging, it was rather quiet, and as we looked out at campus from our second-floor-of-Baker-window, we saw people walking by, blissfully unaware of the literary mayhem being unleashed on the pages of our magazine. And so we’re done with our hermitude. It’s time for The Oakland Review to rejoin the Carnegie Mellon community.

Those of you who know The Oakland Review may be familiar with it as the ragtag group of students who meet in the Creative Writing lounge (aka The Glad) on Tuesday evenings. What you may not know is the longstanding tradition behind this group.

Since 1973, The Oakland Review has been Carnegie Mellon’s premier literary arts journal, but — like many organizations — it was devastated by COVID, leaving only a few undergraduates students to bring it back from literary obscurity. For years, the magazine has been accepting poetry, prose, and art submissions from across the nation. But, this year, on the heels of its 50th anniversary, The Oakland Review has decided to return the magazine to its Pittsburgh roots.

Starting now, and running through February 1, we are accepting submissions from all over Pittsburgh, including all students, staff, and yinzers who have something to say. Not only that, but we have a theme too, “Bloom.” We are indeed quite subtle. Just like how we are subtly demanding that you send us your work! Yes, ye reader of The Tartan, you!

Allow us, for a moment, to get all mushy gushy about this theme, this word, bloom. The Oakland Review has come to mean a lot of things, but most of all it’s actually how we, Jen and Dylan, met. A fateful September interest meeting brought us together, and we have since become co-Editors-in-Chief, effectively the parents of this wonderful group of people. Now, we get to give it back. This past semester we’ve met so many wonderful people, to the point that our next issue can only be about one thing, and that’s creation, the magic of new people and new places, the excitement of opening up to the world. Hence, bloom.

In addition to opening submissions, our newest issue will be released at the beginning of next semester! Our final issue contains submissions from all over the world, it is a labor of love and a wonderful closing to our international chapter.

We are also bringing our energy back to Carnegie Mellon! We have a shiny, brand-spanking-new Instagram account (@theoaklandreview, clever right?) and an updated website (www.oakland-review.com/submit). You may have also seen us tabling outside the UC, hot chocolate in hand as we sold old issues and gave everyone The Oakland Review spiel. There’s a lot more of that coming next semester!

Long story short, there’s a lot to be excited about for this new age of The Oakland Review. Our most sincere hope is to create a space for Carnegie Mellon and the Pittsburgh community to share their immense talent and creativity. As always, we are grateful for each and every person who has contributed to us, and it is with great pride and excitement that we enter this new era.