Founded in 2003, Ninth Letter is the award-winning literary arts journal edited and produced by the Creative Writing Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. We aim to publish exceptional literary writing and illuminate it in cutting-edge graphic design.

Work published in Ninth Letter has been selected for awards anthologies such as The Pushcart Prize, The Best American Poetry, The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best American Essays, Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and New Stories from the Midwest. During a decade-plus collaboration with the UIUC School of Art + Design, the journal also received national and international awards for graphic design, and was featured in the design awards annuals of both STEP Inside Design and HOW Magazine. In 2023, Ninth Letter was a finalist for General Magazine Excellence in CLMP's Firecracker Awards.

Ninth Letter maintains a strong commitment to our role in the UIUC Creative Writing curriculum. Graduate and undergraduate students in English and Creative Writing enroll in editing and publishing courses in which they gain hands-on experience in editorial work. Students who have completed the Ninth Letter courses have gone on to career success in commercial, academic, and literary publishing, thanks in part to their experience working with Ninth Letter.

This issue of Ninth Letter is a reminder of the power and strangeness of witnessing. As writers, we are always observing, noting. You’ll be surprised, reader, in these pages, but never unsure—the writers assembled here will lead you expertly through the wonder. 

This nearly 180-page issue includes the winners of the 2025 Ninth Letter Literary Awards and the winner of 2025 Regeneration Contest and seventeen more writers. Featuring work from: Jada Renée Allen, Megan J. Arlett Maeve Barry, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Austen Camille, Geffrey Davis, Cady Favazzo, Benjamin Gucciardi, Jackie Hedeman, L. A. Johnson, Mickie Kennedy, Erik Harper Klass, Diana Keren Lee, Leah Mensch, Jenny Molberg, Weijia Pan, Danielle Pieratti, Rob Shapiro, Steff Sirois, Julie Marie Wade, and Ani Weinstein.