Pleiades: Literature in Context is a nationally recognized literary magazine published by the University of Central Missouri. Each issue includes a guest-edited folio that highlights literature within a specific cultural or geographic context. These folios, beginning 2026, are re-published on our website. Our tagline, “literature in context,” reflects our commitment to publishing work that engages with place, community, and the diverse conditions that shape creative expression. We publish original poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, works in translation, book reviews, and interviews. Our print issues are published twice per year, Spring and Fall.
Over the years, Pleiades has made a point of publishing well-established writers alongside unknown writers. Among the journal’s literary “discoveries” (poets and writers who published work in its pages before their first books were released) are Amina Gautier, Zachary Mason, Alexander Weinstein, Tiphanie Yanique, Adrian Matejka, Ken Chen, Joy Katz, Arielle Greenberg, Christine Sneed, Mark Bibbins, Randall Mann, Hadara Bar-Nadav, and Michael Snediker.
- Pleiades was founded in 1981 by a group of undergraduate students at the University of Central Missouri under the faculty advisement of Bob Jones.
- In 1991, Rose Marie Kinder turned the staple-bound student publication into a 120-page nationally distributed literary journal with an emphasis on cultural diversity. By spreading the journal to libraries across the state and across the country, Kinder drew the support of community and state arts organizations.
- Starting in 1998, under the co-editorship of Kevin Prufer and Rose Marie Kinder, Pleiades became a full-color glossy journal of national renown, publishing the work of American literary luminaries such as Joyce Carol Oates, Sherman Alexie, and D. A. Powell.
- In 2006, under the co-editorship of Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer, Pleiades became an international journal, bringing both editors’ focus on literary translation to the magazine, while publishing poetry and fiction in translation from all over the world, from Germany to the Czech Republic, from Japan to the Middle East.
- Phong Nguyen joined Pleiades as fiction editor in 2007, and became co-editor in 2010. As editor of Pleiades, Phong has emphasized the web presence of the journal and raised the profile of magazine as a venue for contemporary fiction and creative nonfiction.
- Jenny Molberg became Poetry Editor in 2015, joined as Co-Editor in 2016, and was named Editor-in-Chief in 2018. Jenny established the Prufer Poetry Prize in 2021. Jenny expanded translation folios and amplified Pleiades’s guest-edited folios, celebrating collaborative curation. Special folios included: Korean American Women Poets, edited by E.J. Koh; Kahani: Writers from Pakistan and its Diaspora, edited by Hananah Zaheer; LGBTQIA+ Latinx Poets, edited by Ruben Quesada; and more.
- Currently, Pleaides is helmed by Editor-in-Chief, Caroline Crew and Managing Editor, Claude-Canese Jarboe. Crew joined as Creative Nonfiction Editor in 2023, before assuming the role of EiC in 2025. As a team, Crew and Jarboe are focused on updating and growing Pleiades’ digital presence, including making our special folios available digitally, as well as launching a summer internship for undergraduate and graduate students.