Under Construction
Under Construction is an award-winning literary journal edited and produced by students at North Hennepin Community College.
Every year since 1968, Under Construction has published original work by NHCC students that portray the depth and breadth of human experience. Be a part of NHCC’s literary legacy by submitting your work for publication, or by becoming an editor for this storied literary journal!
How do I submit?
Email your work directly to the Under Construction editorial board at underconstruction@nhcc.edu. Please include your submission as an editable attachment, such as a Microsoft Word document.
What do I submit?
We accept submissions in all genres, including fiction, personal essay, poetry, reviews, comics, manga, and more.
If you are submitting poetry, please submit no more than three poems. For fiction and nonfiction submissions, please limit your submission to 8 pages double-spaced with 12-pt. font.
You are welcome to submit in multiple genres! Please submit work of different genres in separate attachments.
For Fall 2026 submissions, the deadline to submit your work is December 5th. If you submit after December 5, 2026, please include at least one alternate email address where we can reach you.
Interested in learning more about the publication process? Become an editor for Under Construction!
How do I work on Under Construction?
To be an editor, register for Magazine Workshop (ENGL 1250), a 2-credit class offered every spring semester.
In Magazine Workshop, you will learn hands-on skills in editing, copyediting, event coordinating, communicating with authors, and more. (Note: you do not need to be a grammar expert to register for the class!)
This is an amazing opportunity to work with a small team of dedicated peers to select and prepare submissions for publication.
Have further questions? Please reach out directly to faculty editor, Karen Parkman at (karen.parkman@nhcc.edu).
Under Construction Issue 56
Letter from the Editors
Dear Reader,
It is our great pleasure to present you with this 56th Issue of Under Construction: A Literary Magazine.
This issue is part of a long history of publishing at NHCC. Our campus literary magazine was first conceived in 1969 through the Creative Writing Club, led by English faculty member, Vicky Lettmann. Over the course of the pandemic, our literary community—like many other communities—lost the strength and connection we’ve enjoyed for these five decades. However, this year, a group of dedicated students (some of whom were part of the Magazine Workshop class) resurrected the Creative Writing Club to support the strong literary community that used to be, making it a place of connection and inspiration once again. We were honored to have Vicky Lettman join us to celebrate this new strength at Under Construction’s second annual Open Mic! It was wonderful to hear some of her poems and be able share current student voices with her, voices we hope you will get to know and love in the following pages.
As the Magazine Workshop class was putting this issue together, we had many discussions about what topics and styles we wanted to share. Our guiding principle was to share the widest range of voices we could. And to let those voices stand strong on their own. We wanted to preserve the voices of NHCC students as they revealed their experiences and their dreams through their art. And we wanted to show how NHCC students’ dreams and experiences were positioned in the historical context of 2024. We wanted to show the important roles fantasy, horror, fable, romance, and realism played in the lives and minds of our student body. We wanted to show the need for truth-telling, the need for catharsis, the need for entertainment, and the need for love. We wanted this publication to represent the full community that our beautiful campus holds. We were able to do so with the help of illustrator Emily Kashirsky.
In addition to our talented student writings and illustrations, we also wanted to share some of our deep questions. In April 2024, thanks to faculty member Kelly Lundquist, we were able to host a book club event to talk about Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. The readers of her essay collection joined our Magazine Workshop class to discuss the major questions raised by this new book. Then, during her visit to our campus, Cathy Park Hong met with the editors of Under Construction. They asked her our most important questions. Her profound answers can be found here in this issue!
Finally, this year, we’ve had an incredible challenge of bringing our literary magazine into the 21 century and publishing it online (a process we’ve been working on since 2021). There were so many intricate choices that we as an editorial board worked through together as we took this first step online.
To that end, we offer our biggest “thank you” to the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Academic Foundations, Heidie Lish. It is impossible to concisely describe the complicated nature of bringing Under Construction online, but without a doubt, we could not have done it without her creative thinking and commitment to this project. Thank you, Heidie! Thank you so much!
We hope everyone enjoys this issue. And we hope NHCC students from Fall ’24 and Spring ’25 consider sharing their own creative works in Under Construction Issue 57 (and maybe become editors in the Magazine Workshop class) too!
Sincerely,
The Under Construction, Issue 56 Editorial Board:
Sam Anderson, Noah Drake, Alicia Everett, Emma Houston, Emily Kashirsky, Hanin Moussa, Wealth Ndego, Branden Sloan, Marlee Swanson, and Ben Tuffour
And Faculty Editor: Haley Lasché