There are about 700 regularly publishing literary journals in America—and each year a writer and blogger named Clifford Garstang ranks them based on how often work from their pages is reprinted in the prestigious annual Pushcart Prize Anthology. Since the Copper Nickel was relaunched it has been climbing Garstang's rankings, and in 2023 hit number 10 for poetry (up from number 11 in 2022), tied with The Georgia Review (established in 1947 at the University of Georgia). Additionally, for fiction in 2023 Copper Nickel is ranked 34 (up from 35 in 2022), putting us ahead of such prestigious publications as A Public Space, Epoch, Oxford American, Story, n+1, Boulevard, Harvard Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Notre Dame Review, and Southwest Review.
Copper Nickel is edited by CU Denver creative writing faculty. And, unique for a journal at this level, Copper Nickel also receives substantial editorial input from undergraduate students. As many as 30 each semester are engaged in first-round editorial screening, proofreading, and production through work as volunteers, interns, and, every fourth semester, through ENGL 4088: Literary Editing: Copper Nickel.
Wayne Miller, Professor & Chair of English says of the accomplishment, “When my colleagues and I relaunched CU Denver's national literary magazine Copper Nickel in 2015 our long-term goal was to become a "top-ten" American journal… we are thrilled.”