Lake Effect is a literary journal based at the Erie campus of Penn State University.

[3] The current editors are George Looney (editor-in-chief) and Aimee Pogson (fiction).

It is notable among University-sponsored literary journals in that its editorial staff are undergraduate students.

Most other University-sponsored literary journals have MFA students who are involved in the editorial work.

Recent noteworthy contributors include: Steve Almond, Jacob M. Appel, T. R. Hummer, Michael Martone, Chris Mazza, Esther Pearlman and Virgil Suarez.