DePaul’s Blue Book is the latest imprint by DePaul University’s English Department, which fosters work in literature, creative writing, and publishing. Indeed, we recently established DePaul’s Publishing Institute, which brings together our student literary magazine, Crook & Folly; the long-standing poetry journal, Poetry East; the urban prose journal, Slag Glass City; and Big Shoulders Books, a press that publishes books that give voice to unique communities and important issues in Chicago and that are edited and promoted by students.

DePaul values the written voice, and the English Department honors and encourages young writers. From over fifty high school literary magazines submitted from across Illinois, Professor Chris Green and his editing class of graduate students in DePaul’s Masters in Writing & Publishing program selected forty-five stellar pieces of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. This is the second volume of our annual tribute to our state’s best young creative writers and their schools’ literary magazines.