For forty years, Watershed Review has been an integral part of the Literary Editing and Publishing (LEAP) certificate program at California State University, Chico, providing professional training to countless creative writers and future editors. Students who participate in the creation and maintenance of Watershed Review learn valuable skills in digital publishing, developmental and copy editing, professional writing, editorial process, and a greater understanding of the larger literary community. Since 2012, Watershed Review has thrived as a digital publication, embracing the affordances of an online platform’s connectivity.
Our mission is to publish literature and visual art illustrating diversity in thought and experience, capturing the crucial narratives and images of our current cultural moment, as well as awareness of the shifting edges of genre. We aim to create a multifaceted gathering of voices, including all identities of race, ethnicity, indigenous tribe, gender, class, sexuality, age, education, ability, language, religion, and region. Two times a year, we aim to publish both known and emerging authors side-by-side, featuring poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and art.
We acknowledge and are mindful that CSU, Chico stands on lands that were originally occupied by the first people of this area, the Mechoopda, and we recognize their distinctive spiritual relationship with this land and the waters that run through campus. We would like to thank the Mechoopda and other native peoples for providing us the opportunity to create our literary publication on their ancestral lands.