Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism seeks original, well-researched, and intellectually rigorous essays written from diverse critical perspectives and about texts from any time period or literary tradition. We prioritize undergraduate submissions but will consider submissions from those who have recently graduated and students pursuing a master's degree. Because we want to help undergraduates publish their work, we do not publish essays by PhD candidates or research scholars.
Submissions are peer-reviewed by a selection board comprised of students at BYU, and final decisions are made by the journal's lead editors in consultation with a faculty advisor.
Current Issue: Volume 16, Issue 1 (2023) Volume 16, Issue 1 (Winter 2023)
Front Matter
Articles
Coping With COVID Through Tangled and Social Media
Maram AlTurky
Exploring the Matriarchal Past to Forge a Modern Identity: Maternal Origins in Woolf and Ihimaera
Kirsten W. Burningham
“Perfect in her Eyes:” Domestic Retrenchment and Panoptical Resistance in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park
Holden O. d'Evegnee
Havens and Covens: Pregnancy, Witchcraft, and Female Power in Cotton Mather’s “Retired Elizabeth”
Brittney A. Hatchett
Claude McKay's Protest Sonnets
Lily Jensen
Recognizing Freedom: Zitkala-Ša's Fight for Native Citizenship
Camille J. Karpowitz
Shakespeare’s Prince of Denmark: Political Pandering in Hamlet
Moriah Theriault
Full Issue

Editor-in-Chief
Daniel Taylor, BYU
Managing Editors
Hannah Christiansen, BYU
Gretchen Picklesimer Kinney, BYU
Josie Peterson, BYU
Lead Copyeditors
Mindy Peterman, BYU
Sophia Snyder, BYU
Rebecca Watkins, BYU
Staff
Payton Andreadakis, BYU
Aubrey Boyle, BYU
Jaicie Clayton, BYU
Charity Ford, BYU
Kailey Harris, BYU
Lily Jensen, BYU
Jonathan Kruyer, BYU
Julia Nebeker, BYU
Brennah Payne, BYU
Céline Taylor, BYU
Moriah Weaver, BYU
Faculty Advisor
Jason Kerr, BYU