About Breakwater

Who we are

Breakwater Review is an online arts journal committed to publishing poetry and prose by established and emerging writers. We're looking for sincere, well-crafted work that takes us somewhere unexpected and sticks with us. While we may explore "themed" issues in the future, we don't limit either the subject matter or type of work of our contributors.

Breakwater Review is published in two issues per year: January and June. Find out more about our reading periods by viewing our Submissions page. In subsequent issues, we're adding criticism, interviews, as well visual and multimedia art.

Our team of staff and volunteers is drawn from UMB students. The journal is supported, but not governed by, the Creative Writing MFA program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

Editorial Staff

Andra Hibbert, Managing Editor

Andra Hibbert is a fiction student in the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She grew up in rural Vermont, and has a BA in Economics and Gender Studies from Williams College in 2005. She came to focus on her writing after spending several years doing economics research.

Calvin Hennick, Associate Managing Editor, Non-fiction Editor

Calvin Hennick is a fiction student in the MFA program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His essays and journalism have appeared in two dozen publications, including The Boston Globe Magazine, Runner's World, and Scholastic Instructor. Before turning his attention to writing, he taught seventh-grade English in the South Bronx with Teach For America, and he holds a master’s degree in teaching from Pace University. An Iowa native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Iowa in 2004.

Ezra Fox, Associate Editor

Shea Mullaney, Production Manager, Interim Arts Editor

Danielle Jones-Pruett, Poetry Editor

Danielle Jones-Pruett is an MFA candidate at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her work has been published in the Birmingham Arts Journal, Freethought Today, and the Southern Women's Review. Danielle detests writing about herself in third person, but loves reading your poetry.

Poetry Readers 2009-2010

Kathleen Raddatz
Rad Thie

Fiction Readers 2009-2010

Jesse Priest
Abby Machson-Carter
Lisa Duffy
Jay Wolan
Andy Hughes
Patricia Peterson
Frank Morris
Meghan Hancock
Kathleen McKenna

Submission guidelines

Breakwater Review only accepts previously unpublished work and is glad to review simultaneous submissions, but please inform us if your writing is accepted elsewhere. We are not looking for poetry or prose of certain styles or theme, we just want work that moves us and will move the audience we're building. We are also looking for literary criticism, book reviews, and original creative non-fiction.

Breakwater is published two times per year: January and June. We offer rolling, open submission for each of our issues. Submissions received after the close for each issue will be considered for a subsequent issue. Submission cut-off dates are as follows:

November 15 for the January issue;
April 15 for the June issue.

Please submit your work via our new online submission manager. The deadline for the January issue has passed; however, submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis for subsequent issues.

NOTE: E-mail submissions were accepted until October 4, 2009 and will be automatically entered into the system. E-mail submissions received on or after October 5, 2009 won't be accepted and should be re-entered in our online submission manager. Thank you!

Even though we're new, we receive a large number of submissions. Our submission guidelines are setup to facilitate our editorial process. Please follow the instructions below to enter your submission, or your manuscript will be automatically withdrawn: