The Rock Creek Review is an undergraduate literary criticism journal edited, produced and published by students at Heidelberg University in partnership with the English Department. This journal will solicit literary research from schools around the world for an annual publication every Spring.
Call for Papers - Spring 2026
The Rock Creek Review is once again open for submissions! Based at Heidelberg University, The Rock Creek Review is an undergraduate academic journal focused on literary criticism in English written by undergraduate students around the globe. The theme for this volume is Untold Stories - highlighting the experiences, lives, and voices of those in marginalized and suppressed communities. While papers are not required to fit the theme, those that do are greatly appreciated!
In 1817, English poet, writer, and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge published his two-volume autobiography entitled Biographia Literaria. In his writing, Coleridge proposed the idea of the “suspension of disbelief”, in which an audience willingly suspends their ideals of what is real or not to fully understand and immerse themselves in a narrative or story. This year’s edition of The Rock Creek Review invites undergraduate essays analyzing and critiquing pieces of literature in which the reader must confront the unreal and suspend their disbelief.