Timeline of The Watermark (Chronological)
"Early Stage" Period – The period of history where The Watermark still morphologically resembled later issues of Howth Castle before it settled into the Golden Age period. The Early Stage lasted from roughly 1993 (Volume #1) to 2002 (Volume 9) with the issues steadily becoming thinner despite maintaining the same physical dimensions. Note how, aesthetically as well, Volumes 1-5 of The Watermark had more in common with Howth Castle before a period of visual drift occurred, and The Watermark settled into its Golden Age period aesthetic.
“Golden Age” Period – The early 2000s to mid 2000s, or Volume #9 (2003) to Volume #18 (2009) where all copies had a remarkable physical consistency in size, dimension, thickness, and aesthetic. This period of Watermark history is digitized and available for viewing on Scholarworks here. It is a term used consistently across this work.
“Middle Period” Stage – Watermark history between roughly 2009-2015 that is largely undocumented save for Volume #21's unusual publication history.
"Late Stage" Period – Roughly from years 2016 to 2022, where the books of The Watermark began to display increasing variation in physical size, thickness, aesthetic, and overall composition. This period of The Watermark's history is not available to the public in any digitized form. Most of our Questionnaires deal with this period.
Terminology
Archival Feudalism – A framework designed to try and make sense of the fact there are six different nodes or centers of records for The Watermark, none of which currently hold a complete run of copies of the publication (as far as I can tell and document.)
Bookshelf Archeology – The act of looking through abandoned shelving systems and trying to make sense of what you find through excavation of the contents and analysis of their distribution.
Codicology – Codicology is the academic study of manuscripts—particularly medieval codices—as physical, cultural, and historical artifacts, often called the "archaeology of the book". It investigates how books were made, including materials (parchment, paper, ink), structure (quires), binding, and layout to understand their production and usage.
Ecocomposition – a post-process writing theory exploring the relationship between discourse (writing/thinking) and environments—natural, constructed, or imagined.
Modern Codicology –The application of Codicology in a modern context to micro-press, small press, and other zine-like publications that operate on similar structures as manuscripts (small print runs, hand made, etc.) Today we would call this a "quality control issue" but the logic remains sound when we reduce it to the core components of two of the exact same books being made different from one another through the manufacturing process. This is not a traditionally recognized term / field. However enough theoretical overlap exists that I feel comfortable porting over the idea and attempting to map it into our framework given the behaviors of the books ,and the fact that I have many copies that are variants and need language to describe this. Seeing as how there is already digital Codicology via Bridget Whearty's framework in Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor, this invention of mine does not seem so far-fetched.
Variant – A version of a text that differs from another copy of the same work, often found in manuscripts, early printed editions, or different national editions. These variations can be minor, such as accidental spelling differences, or substantive, such as intentional changes in wording, added paragraphs, or omissions.
Texts
The Breakwater Review – the MFA departmentally founded, funded, and run born-digital journal of the arts.
CHORD – A student publication put out by the Asian American Studies Department between 2005-2009(ish) with 5 known volumes, 2 confirmed surviving hard copies, and 4 digitized volumes on their abandoned website.
Howth Castle – The predecessor journal to The Watermark, which ran from 1985-1993 and can be found in full on ScholarWorks here.
The In-Between – A small student publication from 2025 that emerged from an MFA class at UMass on publishing and editing. It focused largely on translations of foreign texts from Pakistan. It was printed alongside Queeah and Literally at about 30 copies.
Literally – An independent student / former student publication from 2025 that emerged from an MFA class at UMass on publishing and editing. It is in its third volume and represents one of the last campus-born publications in the last 30 years to make it past the second-release barrier that most other publications did not successfully pass through. They printed 25 copies of their first issue.
LUX – A student publication from the Honors College that would go on to become Writ Large after a departmental skirmish over control of the publication.
The Mass Media – Both the name of the student newspaper, and an umbrella term for the student paper and other student publications (currently only The Waterfront qualifies as being under its umbrella). This distinction is more deeply engaged with in Questionnaire #1
The Nantucket Review – a publication from Nantucket island which ran between the 1970s and 1980s, one of the co-founding Editors-in-Chief taught at UMass in the 80s and left copies on campus.
Provocateur: A Literary Magazine – an LGBT publication from December 2013, which we know a surprising amount about.
ROAR – A singleton publication of feminist literature from 2011
(un)civil – A singleton publication of political writing from 2013-2014
Undercurrents – The Composition department’s journal of undergraduate writing.
The Watermark – A student publication at UMass (for the arts) which ran from 1993 to 2023-ish before becoming The Waterfront, the spiritual successor publication.
The Waterfront – The successor publication to Writ Large & Watermark, it currently functions more like a student club than an integrated branch of the campus given it is not listed on the Student Activities website, but is listed on the UMass Boston internal list of student clubs. It was born out of the alleged recognition that neither publication was receiving enough submissions to exist independently, and by 2023-2024(?) they had been merged and were publishing in 2025(?)
Writ Large – A student publication at UMass (for nonfiction op-eds) which ran from roughly from 2016-2022 before becoming The Waterfront, the spiritual successor publication.
Triptych – Triptych was / is my science fiction magazine I founded in November of 2025 that I ran / run. I released Issue #1 in April 2026 with a total of 20 physical copies. I was curious not just about how these student-made books moved on campus, but what it was like to actually make, place, and watch one's own creative work. Technically, it too counts as a campus born but not campus bound publication, like Literally.
Queeah – A small student publication from 2025 that emerged from an MFA class at UMass on publishing and editing alongside The In-Between and Literally. It was printed in around 50 copies total. Photos of it can be found in the photos page.
Other
The Sixth Floor Archive – A proto-project, or Version One project, of this website which is still available on the internet for viewing but no longer exists as a functional archive. It is referenced on occasion throughout this website, here and here.
Witt’s End Cafe – The Witt’s End Cafe was an on-campus restaurant / cafe / lounge area for students. Several volumes of Early Stage Watermark identify it as a space where editors were able to hang out, outside of an office, and discuss the work they were doing. It would go on to close in 2007 during the closing years of the Golden Age period. It would be replaced with a Dunkin Donuts that has no real private seating conducive to small group meetings.