By Edna Horton/nw news editor
NW Campus English department is accepting submissions for its award-winning literary magazine.
English instructor Theresa Bacon serves as faculty editor of Marine Creek Reflections, a collection of short stories, poetry and artwork fully edited and written by NW Campus students. The magazine’s 2009 issue was voted No. 1 in the Southwest region at the Community College Humanities Association competition held every year in New Jersey. In previous years, the magazine has earned first- and second-place recognition.
“I’m so proud because it’s student-run. It’s not faculty-run,” she said. “The students do everything.”
Fourteen student editors design and lay out the magazine as well as select the pieces that will be in it. Editors must have completed creative writing and are selected by faculty. This spring the student editors can enroll in English 2389, where they can get credit for working on the magazine.
“You have to be fairly selective. You can’t have a class of 50 because nothing gets done,” she said. “So you have to be fairly selective in the class members, and I choose, but really it’s teacher recommendation.”
The 2009 issue included for the first time a DVD with artwork, poetry, play performances and dance performances. The DVD will be included in the 2010 issue as well. Bacon said the CCHA judges loved the DVD.
“The performance disk is really its own bird. It’s looked at totally differently,” she said. “It’s a lot of hours putting things together, editing, making sure of the smooth transition and how things work from one end to the other, so you have a lot of fluency from one idea to another.”
Submissions of poetry, short stories, essays, photography, artwork or dance or play performances will be accepted until 4 p.m. Jan. 29.
Text submissions are turned in to Bacon or Katy Ramos, humanities division senior secretary. All artwork, graphics and photography are turned in to Karen Buerkle, media services graphics manager. Text submissions are chosen by blind reads.
“I’m really the tie-breaker. If two people can’t decide whether or not this piece should be included in the magazine, then they come to me and say, ‘Here, you read it. What do you think?’” Bacon said. “We do blind reads where we don’t really know who’s written what, so there’s never any favoritism. Just because somebody has submitted work doesn’t mean it will be chosen.”
The 2010 issue will be released for contributors, faculty and staff June 2. The formal release will be in October in a campuswide celebration that highlights the humanities division.
Bacon said the magazine is a lot of work, but she loves it.
“It’s frustrating. It’s a labor of love. It’s wonderful to watch the students see this magazine come together,” she said. “It just starts to take a life of its own, and they start choosing things. Here we are with this creation, and what you start with is not what you get in the end.”
For more information on how to submit work, or the price of the magazine, contact Bacon at theresa.bacon@tccd.edu.
