Spring 2021 Editor’s Choice Awards and Deadline Extension

Introducing this years faculty guest judges: David Philip Mullens for fiction, Trey Moody for poetry, John Price for creative nonfiction, and Amy Morris for the visual arts. First, second, and third place for each category will be featured at our launch party on April 28th.

The submission deadline for the Spring 2021 edition has been pushed back to February 20th.

5 Books to Read this Summer
By Claire Bromm

 

Summer is right around the corner (yay!) and that means having extra time to do all the things you didn’t have time for during the busy school year. This could be spending more time with family, finally getting around to working out, creating that DIY you’ve been looking at on Pinterest or sitting down and reading some good books.

Here are five books you should check out this summer.

 

  1. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

If you knew the date of your death, how would you live your life? It’s 1969 in New York City’s Lower East Side, and word has spread of the arrival of a mystical woman, a traveling psychic who claims to be able to tell anyone the day they will die. The Gold children, four adolescents on the cusp of self-awareness, sneak out to hear their fortunes. The prophecies inform their next five decades.

 

  1. The Winds of Winter by George R. R. Martin

The sixth installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire series is slated to be released this summer, however fans of the book, and the HBO series Game of Thrones, have been burned by Martin and his long-writing process before.

 

  1. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

 

  1. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Ijeoma Oluo explores the complex reality of today’s racial landscape–from white privilege and police brutality to systemic discrimination and the Black Lives Matter movement–offering straightforward clarity that readers need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide.

 

  1. White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht

Korea, 1943. Hana has lived her entire life under Japanese occupation. As a haenyeo, a female diver of the sea, she enjoys an independence that few other Koreans can still claim. Until the day Hana saves her younger sister from a Japanese soldier and is herself captured and transported to Manchuria. There she is forced to become a “comfort woman” in a Japanese military brothel. But haenyeo are women of power and strength. She will find her way home.

It’s National Poetry Month
By Maison Horton

Welcome to April, writers! The month of spring showers brings with it a chance to nourish our own writing. That’s because April is National Poetry Month and, consequently, National Poetry Writing Month (often abbreviated as NaPoWriMo). The idea is simple: thirty poems for thirty days. To honor National Poetry Month, poets across the country are challenged to let go of their inhibitions and just write for thirty consecutive days. Such concentration during a one-month period has the potential to take our writing into territory never explored. In this blog post, we’ll talk a little bit more about the NaPoWriMo event, as well as some reasons why you should consider participating this year.

 

Background

In 1996, The Academy of American Poets established the first National Poetry Month to be celebrated every April. The Academy’s website lists the goals of national observance, and those goals were to:

With these ideas in mind, it makes sense that a poet would seek to honor National Poetry Month by writing poems. Poet Maureen Thorson had that exact spirit when she started the poem-a-day event for the month of April. According to napowrimo.net, what began as a project by Thorson eventually inspired other poets to follow suit:

“This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, she started writing a poem a day for the month of April back in 2003, posting the poems on her blog. When other people started writing poems for April, and posting them on their own blogs, Maureen linked to them. After a few years, so many people were doing NaPoWriMo that Maureen decided to launch an independent website for the project.”

The event site’s “About” page also mentions, “But this site isn’t meant to be ‘official,’ or to indicate ownership or authority over the idea of writing 30 poems in April.” Essentially, NaPoWriMo is purely for the joy of writing poetry and sharing that joy with like-minded poets. The event also gives poets a way to actively participate in the observance of National Poetry Month that is also personal.

 

NaPoWriMo Today

The expansion of social media has only extended NaPoWriMo’s reach. These days, a poet can find a wealth of resources to inform and inspire their poetic endeavors. There are numerous websites and blogs (Tumblr is one platform that comes to mind) that provide writing prompts for each day in April, prompts that often cater to a writer’s needs and goals.

 

Participation is Key to Growth

So, why participate in NaPoWriMo? What can a poet (or essayist, novelist, screenwriter, etc.) gain from writing a poem-a-day for thirty days? Below are some reasons to consider taking part in the fun this April:

  1. Flexibility. Beyond writing one poem per day, there are no rules! There are infinite ways to move forward with your writing goals for the month. It’s possible to borrow the rules from NaNoWriMo and meet a word count each day. Perhaps you want to work on existing poems instead of composing new ones. Maybe you’re the rebellious type—so instead, you’re thinking of working on that memoir manuscript. The main idea is to find a writing goal and to stick to it, as long as that goal gets you writing.
  2. Discovery. New and fresh ideas will arise, especially if writers choose to create brand new poems this April. I can speak to this method from personal experience. Last year I participated in NaPoWriMo, and I generated so much surprising material. I let my inner critic take a seat for the entire month. After April ended, I went back to my poems and underlined (and later, compiled) any threads—words, phrases, even whole lines—I thought had potential. NaPoWriMo is a chance to let the gems from your subconscious mind float to the surface and onto the page.
  3. Adventure. NaPoWriMo isn’t just for poets. Writers of all disciplines can benefit from experimenting with poetry, as poetry is one method that can help us practice creating compelling images through metaphor, simile, etc. If you’ve been avoiding writing a stanza or two, there’s never been a better time to get started on a new project!
  4. Community. In addition to providing writing prompts, many writing blogs accept and post NaPoWriMo submissions on their webpages. Inspiration abounds; know that by participating in NaPoWriMo, you’re not alone! The community surrounding the event is supportive and always encouraging. Having such a wide collection of artists engaging in the same event makes NaPoWriMo satisfying year after year.

4 Tips for Staying Motivated to Write
By Emily Kern
As the semester continues to flash by at an almost indescribable pace, it is easy to get swept away with the tide of homework, work, and other random to-dos, losing your motivation to write in the process. Despite majoring in Creative Writing, I definitely have experienced this inevitable reality of being pulled in a million directions, and my level of motivation for writing produced zero short stories and very few ideas. Because of that, I wanted to share 4 of my favorite tips for how to remain motivated to write even if other things require your immediate attention.
    1. Make time. It is easy to admit defeat and say we don’t have time. The simple solution is to say: make time. The more complicated solution is to actually follow through. Whether it is five minutes or two hours devoted solely to the words (and worlds) in your head, actively schedule time to write just as you would plan for an assignment for class.

     

    1. Set goals but make them reasonable. Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish can help you to stay motivated. Whether you decide to write a poem, a chapter, or just 100 words, having realistic goals that you know you can (and will) accomplish will help you stay excited, and motivated, to write.

     

    1. Reading the work of others can help to reignite the flame within us and remind us why we started. By opening your mind to the world of another, you open your mind to new ideas for your own work. Getting out of your own head is crucial for creativity. If you take the time to read a book, you are allowing your mind to wander in the background.

     

    1. Keep writing. There is no wrong way to write. If you are able to write short stories, essays, or poems every time you write, that’s great. But maintaining your motivation to write doesn’t have to mean always writing in your medium. The act of writing itself can help you to stay motivated. Try writing a letter to a friend or loved one, keep a journal and write down what happened in the day, write about what is bothering you, or try a brain dump. No matter how “productive” your writing feels, keep writing. It’s the only way to get better.