The 2025 edition of Welter, The University of Baltimore's acclaimed literary journal produced by collaborating students in the MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts and the English program, is now available. The journal is celebrating its 60th anniversary of publishing new works—short fiction, poetry, memoir and visual art—submitted by writers and artists from across the country.
Welter is produced annually as an extended class project involving writing, editing, page layout and design, and website development. Under faculty supervision, students handle every aspect of creating the edition from scratch. Submissions are assessed according to their originality and artistic merit. The publication is one of several at the University, and serves as an essential part of the learning process in both creative writing and publishing.
Prof. Betsy Boyd, who heads up the MFA and oversees and instructs the Welter process, says the 2025 edition is "a major milestone and a meaningful reason to look back to the publication's beginnings in 1965, when civil rights and Vietnam dominated the news. Our students reviewed the numerous submissions through a lens at once political and artistic; we discussed, of course, our own experience in time. With wars raging globally and fierce tensions at home, we wondered how far we've come since the 1960s.
"With America's free-speaking history, as well as its future, in mind, we were especially struck this semester by the wonderfully idiosyncratic voices we read, especially in those pieces that we accepted. While the works aren't overtly political, they are full of feeling, joy, deep reflection, nostalgia, confusion, sorrow, rage. Little by little, we noticed a nuanced theme of personal expression emerging via all the accepted pieces. A male writer details his eating disorder; a female addict finds strength in escaping a dangerous partnership; a beyond lonely young man takes a job in a new city. These voices invite connection. Writing can heal the writer as well as the reader, something else we were keen to discuss over the semester."
Learn more about Welter, UBalt's MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts, and the English program.
Learn about Welter's 60-year publishing history.