The Laurel is St. Bonaventure University’s literary magazine and the oldest student-run college literary magazine in the United States.

Since 1889, The Laurel has been published every year. It was first published quarterly, then monthly, and then biannually with issues in the fall and spring semesters. For the past couple of years since the pandemic, we have gone down to one issue a year during the spring, and the editorial team has dropped in numbers drastically.

The Laurel is an essential piece of the Bonaventure tradition. Creative work is being made all around campus. The Laurel is the place to honor this work in a distinguished publication. There would not be a magazine without the dedicated work inside and outside academic spaces across St. Bonaventure. To keep this tradition alive, we rely on the submissions of the St. Bonaventure community. The Laurel is honored to accept a wide range of work, such as creative writing, visual art, and photography. St. Bonaventure students, alumni, faculty, and staff are welcome to send their pieces to us. To submit your work, learn more here.

As the new editor-in-chief, my goal is to make The Laurel everything it can be. With hard work from fellow editors and help from our advisor, Dr. Joe Hall, my hope is that we can publish seasonal online editions and a final print edition in the spring. I hope to continue the tradition of creating a space for the St. Bonaventure community to showcase their work in a student-published magazine.

This website, created by past editor-in-chief Rachel Panek and Dr. Joe Hall, is a place for online editions, current and past, to be published and shared. Subscribers will be emailed directly when editions are published.

“We hope to make The Laurel worthy of its name by keeping it in a flourishing condition. We hope, above all, that its leaves will always appear green.” – Introductory, The Laurel Vol. 1, No. 1 (1899)

Abigail Taber, Editor-in-Chief

Header image taken by Mary Quinn McNaughton