Barnard College Undergraduate Major Creative Writing

ABOUT QUARTO

Quarto is the official 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 a variety of academic fields across campus.

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 excellence in writing and art.

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 Danticat, have found literary success themselves.

What never changes is Quarto's dedication to promoting meaningful undergraduate writing and art at Columbia—and the proof can be seen every year printed in its pages.

The Quarto archives can be accessed here. The most recent issue of Quarto can be read here.

Mission

Quarto is dedicated to innovation—to finding fresh voices and exploring new opportunities to recognize writers—all in the effort to keep up with the ever-changing literary landscape on campus. Quarto is committed to uplifting marginalized voices and representing a diverse community of writers and artists.

STAFF

Editors-in-Chief

Alia Derriey

(she/her) is a junior at Barnard majoring in English and minoring in History (and/or Psychology - who knows?!). She is passionate about beans on toast, Phoebe Bridgers, and telling people that she worked in a secondhand bookstore last year!

Ananya Prakash

(she/her) is a junior at Columbia College studying Economics-Mathematics and Sustainable Development. She is trying to be a morning person and has an affinity for people who compliment her cooking.

Editorial Team

Kaylee Jeong - Social Media Editor

is a sophomore at Columbia College studying English and creative writing. She would love to make you a hyper-specific mood playlist on Spotify and/or give you one of the many stickers she carries on her person at all times. Her interests in no particular order include knitting, ClickHole, and tall women (for her this means over 5'5).

Lia Jung - Events Editor

is a junior in CC majoring in English and Linguistic Anthropology. She loves condiments (chutney and homemade tzatziki, specifically) so much that she will eat them by the spoonful, is pleased at the sight of a densely annotated document, and can swim underwater for 50 meters. As a former citizen of the Commonwealth, she is disappointed by the lack of good fish & chip spots in New York and will fight anyone who claims to support Manchester United or Leeds. Much to her father's dismay, she has- in a moment of conceit and protest- rejected her acceptance into law school and has opted instead to venture into the very secure path that is editing. If that doesn't work out she will start afresh as a Twitch streamer playing Black Desert and earn millions.

Kayla LeGrand - Managing Editor

is a senior studying Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is a gemini sun, aquarius moon, and gemini rising with pisces tendencies. She enjoys movement, crate digging, and sitting in the sun.

Camilla Marchese - Administrative Editor

(she/hers) is a junior at Barnard studying Film and English with a Creative Writing concentration. She enjoys people watching, writing her thoughts down on a mini notepad and analyzing movies.

Jiwoo Moon - Managing Editor

is a sophomore in Columbia College potentially majoring in Comparative Literature and Society. She spends her time either dwelling in uncertainty or hyper-fixating on something (e.g., crocheting, playing Moon Song on guitar, clogs). Although her surname has no formal relation to the celestial orb, she likes to believe that she has some spiritual bond with all things lunar.

Camille Sensiba - Copy Editor

(she/her) is a junior in Columbia College studying Creative Writing and Comparative Literature & Society. She is a big fan of big weather, and her hobbies include sitting and standing. She would do almost anything for a nice, warm cookie

Mitali Khanna Sharma - Advising Editor

(she/her) is just about to graduate from Columbia College with a degree in English. She has recently been thinking about the species categorization (or lack thereof) of goblins. She finds hope and beauty in (amongst other things): earthworms, the persistence of love within grief, Coke Studio, and her yellow lab, Teddy.

Dariya Subkhanberdina - Events Editor

(she/her) is an immortal demon studying creative writing and cinema at Barnard College. She is in a perpetual state of longing for often nameless things.

Andie Tappenden - Web Editor

(she/hers) is a poet from the midwest. She is a junior studying English and Creative Writing, and she enjoys using two-period ellipses in texts. Currently she's taking a French class for the first time in four years — friend her on duolingo @andietapp

Design Team

Isabella Aldrete - Art and Design Editor

(she/her) is a sophomore at Barnard College studying English and Political Science. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, obsessing over ecofeminism, and giving bad tarot readings. She dreams of one day moving into an old gothic castle.

Watson Frank - Art and Design Editor

(they/he) is a frog-turned-human freshman at Columbia College and has no idea what they intend to major in. When they aren't starting random conversations in otherwise silent and overly crowded elevators, he can be found eating bok choy and wearing the color green (but not neon green- NEVER neon green).

Rawan Hayat - Head of Design

is a senior at Columbia College double-majoring in Mathematics and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS). She spends most of her time fantasizing about running away from the evils of the twenty-first century and becoming a shepherdess. During her free time, though, she enjoys reading novels, taking aimless walks, and attempting to befriend the cat colony of Morningside Park.

Richard Kam - Art and Design Editor

is a sophomore in Columbia Engineering and native New Yorker. When he's not solving problems sets in Mudd, he likes to paint and enjoy the New York fall, a solid two weeks of perfect weather.

Zain Murdock - Art and Design Editor

(she/her/s) is a senior at Columbia College studying Creative Writing. She is most definitely a Pisces. In no particular order, she likes James Baldwin, making seasonal Spotify playlists, ginger beer, Issa Rae, and using nouns as verbs. Her one dislike: being perceived.

Mel Wang - Art and Design Editor

(she/her) spent a large portion of her time at Barnard trying to convince people that she would make a capable computer science major (she knows how to read binary, gosh darn it!), only to give up and devote her time to taking poetry-workshops and writing very bad poems. She can be found perpetually waiting in line at Liz's. Please approach her with extreme kindness.

Ashley Yung - Art and Design Editor

(she/her/hers) is a sophomore studying English and Political Science in CC. She enjoys afternoon naps, writing in her diary, and planning for an off-the-grid future driving a van across a foreign country, though she is not very good at driving.

Staff Editors

Fatma AlJarman

(she/her) is a freshman at Columbia College intending to major in Middle Eastern Studies and Creative Writing. She can typically be found drinking her third iced mocha of the day, reading a newsletter, and/or overthinking.

Armaan Bamzai

(he/him) is a freshman in Columbia College majoring in English (??????). He loves well-crafted croissants, reading about the history of things, writing poetry about himself and others, and bringing out the pink Lamborghini just to race with China.

Lillabeth Brodersen

(she/her) is a first-year at Barnard College planning to major (maybe) in Human Rights and Art History. She's from Georgia and loves people-watching, Joan Didion, loud music, inside jokes, and living in her own little world.

Chiamaka Okonkwo

(she/her) is a junior at Columbia College majoring in psychology. She is from Long Island, New York and enjoys reading and writing poetry. She is currently working on her first chapbook.

Lily Sickles

(they/them) is a senior English major at Barnard. They love Halloween.

Muni Suleiman

(she/her) is a sophomore at Columbia College studying Sociology with Human Rights or Creative Writing... or History, it depends on when and where you ask her. There's nothing she says that she loves quite like fall weather and festivities, but her twitter addiction, tote bag collection, and tendency to people watch beg to differ. One can usually find her daydreaming stories to go with her favorite songs or sharing personal philosophies in parking
lots.

MOST RECENT ISSUE

Quarto Magazine 2021

We were grateful to have incredible judges, including Johanna Hedva, Hilary Leichter, and Yolanda Wisher, read amazing submissions from the Columbia community. Read our 2021 print edition here (click on image):