Progenitor Art & Literary Journal  is a national-award-winning collegiate publication that is a cornerstone of Arapahoe Community College's art and literary life. We are located in Littleton, Colorado. 

SUBMISSIONS FOR PROGENITOR ARE NOW CLOSED. PLEASE LOOK FOR OUR NEXT CALL IN EARLY FEBRUARY 2026. 

Progenitor Art and Literary Journal, published annually, is the work of two Spring semester courses that students at our college take, Literary Magazine (Curation Team) and Multimedia and Graphic Design Studio (Design Team), respectively.

Our submission window is necessarily brief, and usually within the approximate first couple of weeks of February.  

Specific guidelines for each genre are detailed in the category submission area. 

Thank you to all of our submitters! We truly look forward to reading your best, and are honored to have the opportunity to do so. Our staff is working hard to curate an incredible edition of the Progenitor Art and Literary Journal, here on the eve of our 60th Anniversary Edition!

Our annual "Release Celebration and Reading" is scheduled to be held on Thursday, May 8th, 2025 beginning at 5:30pm in the Colorado Gallery of the Arts, and open to all. Attendees receive a free copy of the new book.  

Those whose works are chosen for publication, aka "Contributors" will be invited to read from their written work or to present their art in person at the event.    

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The Progenitor Art & Literary Journal

Each year, our publication sources the best of the best through a blind reading and committee approach. Thus, student status does not influence our selection; indeed, we publish works from amateur and professional writers and artists from all over the world annually. Yet, we highly encourage students at Arapahoe Community College, and within the Colorado Community College System (CCCS), and of all the colleges and universities in Colorado to submit.  

We are honored to accept submissions from our students, the wider communities around Colorado, and all around the globe for our Art & Literary Journal in the genres of Poetry, Short Story (fiction), Flash Fiction, Creative Nonfiction (CNF), Flash Memoir, 10-Minute Plays (drama), Art (all genres considered, e.g. woodworking, paintings, ceramics, digital art not produced by AI, and so on) and Photography, and Illustrated (graphic) Stories and Comics.

The students who serve on the Progenitor staff work to publish the best of the works they are presented with. Their hard work results in the journal you receive at the end of the semester. A collaborative effort takes place between our contributors and the editors, who are united in their mission to share stories across mediums—written and visual.

Previously, volume 57 (2022) was awarded an "Honorable Mention" for Best Literary Magazine by the prestigious Pinnacle Awards given by the College Media Association, a national organization widely recognized as the best. We tied for fourth, and appeared to be the only two-year college placing in this national competition! You can still explore our work on this volume below. 

Website for v. 57

You can also check out our beautiful site which flaunts the excellence of our 2019 edition, as well as the website from our 2020 edition. 

The Progenitor Art & Literary Journal has been published each Spring semester at ACC for the past 59 years (including during the onset of the pandemic in Spring of 2020). Our journal publishes the best submissions it receives from ACC students and community members, near and far. Find out more about the Progenitor at our Progenitor Art & Literary Journal website. 

Email progenitor@arapahoe.edu with any questions you may have. 

For the 60th Edition, Progenitor is accepting submissions from February 5th to the 16th, 2025 at midnight.  

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International Community: We are disappointed to announce that due to exorbitant shipping costs, coupled with a reduction in our budget, we are no longer able to ship "contributor copies" outside of the US. We will still accept your submissions, and we are happy to publish the ones that our staff chooses through our blind review process, but we cannot send you copies of the book. 

We will, however, email you the pdf of the finished product, and you can, if you wish, pay to have books shipped to you. Also, if there are funds unexpectedly remaining, we will attempt to ship you a couple of copies. 

Our sincere apologies for this policy change. 

~Jamey Trotter

Faculty Advisor