By Emma Russell
Student Life Editor
Senior Justin Nash is the editor in chief for both The Collegian and Washington College Review.
Collegian is Washington College’s student literary magazine which publishes original student creative writing and visual art. Every academic school year Collegian publishes five issues, with the first of which is the staff issue.
“It’s [Collegian’s staff issue] put together during publications bootcamp and features writing and visual art from the editors on staff, which is used as a training tool and to show potential contributors what standard issue will look like,” Nash said.
Issue 32.1 of Collegian went live on their website on Friday Oct 14.
“Collegian has historically been in print —it’s always been in print since its conception some 30 years ago,” he said. “But then with this semester… it became impossible, because there’s no way to distribute something in print to whoever many students we have at home. So we made the decision to go online for this year at least… we are completely online. All five issues will be going on the website—it’s a pretty good website if I do say so myself.”
This issue features original work by eleven students, including freshman Lenora Brown whose work was published for the first time in any literary magazine.
“I’m really excited and just really touched by the reception the Collegian staff gave my work,” she said.
Brown submitted two poems. Her poem “Purpose,” was accepted into the issue.
“It’s one of my favorites because it was about me coming to terms with all of these things, I didn’t really like about myself and putting power into it. I cry a lot and on the surface that’s really annoying and bothersome but when I was writing I was like ‘hell yeah, I cry a lot.’ Like I have all this power to cause a second flood with just my emotions and I the whole poem is like that. Finding the inherent power in my flaws,” Brown said.
Both Brown and Nash encourage students to submit their work.
“Just go for it,” Brown said. “Everyone is super lovely and they [Collegian staff] are very sweet and flexible to talk to.”
“I think people get scared of rejection, which is entirely valid and something that I understand… but just submit. The stakes are so incredibly low and if we reject someone’s writing it doesn’t even mean it’s not good, it just means it wasn’t right for us at that time. It wouldn’t have fit with the theme of the issue,” Nash said. “Just always, always submit. And if you get rejected submit again, and keep submitting, and keep submitting. We want to publish as many students as we can.”
Submissions for issue 32.2 of Collegian open on Oct. 23.
While Nash was busy preparing to publish his first issue of Collegian as editor in chief with student work, he was also preparing to publish his last issue of the Washington College Review as editor in chief.
WCR is the College’s journal of the liberal arts and sciences, which publishes student academic writing and art that has been completed for any WC course in any department.
“Sometimes people think it’s just an English department thing, it is emphatically not,” Nash said.
“Students don’t seem as excited to submit to WCR,” Nash said. “For me even as the editor I write a paper and the last thing I wanna do is look at it again and I don’t think students look back at their academic work with the same pride or value as their creative work, but the point of the journal is that they should.”
“Every spring an issue of [First-Year Seminars], W2, and W3 papers and artwork gets published and every fall, as just came out, an issue full of [Student Capstone Experiences’] gets published,” he said.
The SCE Issue of Volume XXVII OF WCR was published to their website on Thursday Oct. 13.
Alumina Emily Kreider, 20’ had her Communications and Media Studies SCE titled “We’re Here and We’re Queer: An Ethnographic Study of the Queer Community at Washington College,” published in the issue.
“My thesis examines the impact of geography on activism and identity formation for queer identifying youth, that was basically the large research portion of it. Then I took that research and applied it to WC and conducted surveys and interviews to see what the experience of queer students were like on this small campus in rural Chestertown,” Kreider said.
This is the second time Kreider has had a piece of her writing published in theWCR.
“So it was kind of nice to know the process of it,” she said.
“It had gone through so much revision already by the time I submitted it for graduation that it was like ‘might as well, here you go, take a read,’” Kreider said.
Kreider’s advisor Assistant Professor and Program Chair of Communication and Media Studies Dr. Alicia Kozma strongly advised not just to Kreider, but to all the CMS majors to submit their theses to the WCR.
“I think in the case of Dr. Kozma she was a very supportive, encouraging, and an active help to all of the CMS majors, and when it comes to our capstone projects, she really pushed the idea that this wasn’t just something we were doing to graduate, this was something that in a professional setting could be applied in hopefully creating change in our world,” Kreider said. “[My thesis] of course was looking to change people’s mindsets and perceptions of what a supportive environment for queer students can be.”
“When putting together a piece of academic writing that is ultimately your choice in what you’re studying, definitely choose something you’re very passionate about that you enjoy, because even the most niche and unique of subjects can make for fantastic aeras of study and research and can become very fascinating projects and pieces of writing for people to enjoy.”
It doesn’t matter if you’re a senior submitting an old FYS paper you were immensely proud of or a junior submitting multiple W2 and W3 papers, if you’ve written it for a WC class, you can submit it.
“Everyone has something to submit,” Nash said.
Submissions for Volume XXVIII Issue 1 of WCR will open in mid-November.
Visit the Collegian website at https://collegian.washcoll.edu/issue-321 to read issue 32.1and the WCR website at https://washcollreview.com/volume-xxvii-sce-issue/ to read Volume XXVII, SCE Issue.
Information on how to submit to their next issues is also available on their websites.
