Exclusively open to UCSB undergraduates, Ultraviolet aims to amplify student voices and showcase the spectrum of human experience through a broad range of genres and subject-matters. We make the invisible visible. 

Spectrum Ultraviolet is a digital magazine of art and literature published by UCSB’s College of Creative Studies under the larger umbrella of Spectrum Literary Journal, the oldest literary magazine in the UC System. Spectrum Ultraviolet is currently open for submissions to all UCSB students through October 26th, 2025.

Meet the Mag!

If Spectrum Ultraviolet has a theme, it’s our lack of one. The cacophony that follows opening submissions to an entire student body and saying “hit me, baby.” But, we must confess, we still believe it’ll all come together. Sort of like those hodge-podge playlists of all your (right-now) favorite songs, that definitely shouldn’t work, but somehow do. Flashy, youthful nearly to the point of parody, and marking our ancient and analogue journal’s big foray into the digital world, Ultraviolet’s visual style can best be described as, like, Y2K+? While we kinda know what we’re about, Ultraviolet is your lightshow too, and wherever you go, we’ll try and keep up.

We know, anything and everything is a bit of a flashbang prompt. In these next two weeks, feel free to completely indulge yourself, totally wig yourself out, or shine anywhere on the spectrum between. Whether you’re submitting fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, or whatever else you feel like, just trust in your voice, and it’ll be our readers feeling that polychromatic party-light blindness—you know, in the good way! And, if you’re still hard-up for a model, look at Spectrum’s forthcoming digital excerpts from Vol. 68. We promise you’ll find your light, even if you can’t quite see it yet. 

That said, “making the invisible visible” is difficult without some transparency: pieces selected for Spectrum Ultraviolet will be debuted throughout the year on Spectrum’s website, and will, toward the end of Spring quarter, be collected in a magazine-style PDF. Potentially, the digital release could be supplemented by a small print run of floppies—all depending on our budget, we are a student-run literary magazine, after all. But, before we can address hurt for money, we’ve gotta address our hurt for material. So genuinely, seriously, please submit to us. And let me just say, as Ultraviolet’s self-appointed Queen of the ‘Zine, the worst thing you can do is not have fun with it!

Macoy Greco, Editor-in-Chief, 

Spectrum Ultraviolet 

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Please click here to familiarize yourself with our submission guidelines and to submit your work. TTYL!