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 run born-digital journal of the arts. It was founded in 2009, independently, by UMass-MFA students before being absorbed into the instittuional apparatus sometime around 2011 or 2015, based on former contributor bios which state that certain contributors were also working on the journal via assistantships from the department.
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.
The Elephant Magazine – a student(?) publication that put out 3 confirmed print issues by Spring 2017, and had UMB students working on it. I cannot confirm if it was founded by UMB students at current, however.
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 (I assume, otherwise I have difficulty understanding how copies appeared).
No Infinite – a student publication founded on September 20th, 2014. It would put out 4 issues between 2014 and 2016. Given the fact that the original website survives we are able to gather a tremendous amount of data about it. Namely, that print runs were around 150, it considered itself a zine, or zine-adjacent, and we have a direct link connecting it to a UMass Boston class. To quote one particularly important section: The journal grew out of [Professor] Askold Melnyczuk’s Literary Editing and Publishing course at UMass Boston, where editor Mitch Manning earned his MFA in poetry while also organizing the Graduate Employee Union. He was inspired by Boston’s long independent publishing tradition. Two copies were found during my second search of the grad student lounge . Truthfully, it is among the best documented student projects at UMass given that the original website contains links to download the entire 4-issue print run and secondary essays.
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.
TAG: OOC – a very interesting journal of pop culture fan-fiction and Jane Austen fanfiction that put out one confirmed volume around 2013-2015, as I recall. It is opened with a brief essay explaining the history behind the modern concept of 'fanfiction' and its earliest iterations.
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. Technically, it counts as a campus born but not campus bound publication, like Literally.
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(?) An interview with the founding Editor-in-Chief can be found here. Contemporary history of the founding publication can be found here.
Window Cat Press – A Zine founded in or around 2014 that continued publishing into 2018, putting out several issues. It was placed on haitus by the co-founding editors, Emily Jaeger and Kim Dela Cruz, in 2018 and never reactivated. The final issue exists embedded on the website, with the website paratext promising a downloadable PDF 'soon'.
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. Every editor of Writ Large I have spoken with has described themselves as inheriting it in a 'period of decline'.
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.
Wheatley Hall – the building which physically houses the English Department and the now inactive Witt's End Cafe, much of the "creative writing" output on campus has originated from this building, or else the nearby Campus Center building just because the humanities subjects are in Wheatley Hall, or else have satellite offices in Campuc Center, about a 1 minute walk away.
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.
Faculty & Other Individuals
Richard Burns – Richard Burns (he/him/his) is a Massachusetts native who moved to Nantucket in 1972. In 1974, with Richard Cumbie and Louise Meredith, he co-founded and then co-edited the literary magazine The Nantucket Review, which ran until 1987. For several years during the '80s, he taught literature and writing at UMass-Boston and at other mainland schools. In 2002, while working in Brattleboro, Vermont, he was a co-founder of the Brattleboro Literary Festival. He was a member of the organizing committee for the inaugural Nantucket Book Festival in 2012. He subsequently served as the Festival's literary director and is currently a member of the literary committee. (Per The Nantucket Book Foundation)
Askold Melnyczuk – Professor Melnyczuk teaches a class at UMass about editing and publishing literary magazines in the MFA program, which does seem to culminate in an actual student-made print journal. As a result it would be wrong to pretend this class does not happen, or not at least mention it as a part of the student literary environment. So far as I understand the record, the following journals are a result of that class, or else mention Professor Melnyczuk by name: No Infinite, Literally, The In-Between, Queeah, TAG: OOC, multiple volumes of The Watermark, and more. I am sure there are at least a few other journals missing from this list.
Donna Neal – a very important figure in the Watermark publication history, mentioned repeatedly throughout editorial notes, interviews conducted with former editors, and across the Mass Media newspaper reporting. Sadly, she has passed away as of 2018 and was very well liked by multiple generations of students and student editors.
Andrea Ward – alumni / student editor of an unreleased issue of The Watermark which was later converted into Volume #21 without her knowledge and input. Note, that several still active and circulating and 'official' accounts continue to name her as 'Andria' Ward.