[ONLINE EXCLUSIVE]
Write poetry or short fiction? Create art? Do something else creative? Submit your work to “Crosscurrents”, Puget Sound’s student-run literary and arts magazine! Since its first publication in 1957, “Crosscurrents” has been a place for students to have their creative work published and list on their résumé.
“’Crosscurrents’ aims to showcase awesome student work and facilitate discussion of the arts on campus,” said the current editor-in-chief, senior Leah Vendl.
Students can submit a maximum of three art, three poems, two prose, and one other/miscellaneous type of work to ccr@pugetsound.edu by midnight of Sunday, Oct. 24 to be considered for publication. Photo submissions must be a minimum of 300 dpi. Photo Services will be offering a free photo shoot after Fall Break on Wednesday, Oct. 21 and Thursday, Oct. 22, in Kittredge room 111.
“This is a great opportunity for students to get their work photographed for a portfolio. They get to keep all the photos and we just ask that they submit up to 3 pieces,” Vendl said.
Any student is welcome to help select the content for the magazine. “Crosscurrents” is both a club and an activity credit for those who sign up for the class, which is listed through the English department on Cascade. Students gather in the basement of the Media House on Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. to work on the bi-annual publication.
The newest additions to the magazine include a ‘Select Works’ section and an interview with a guest contributor. ‘Select Works’ is a selection of one poem, one art, and one prose with a professor commentary on each of the works. Two of the three professors reviewing the “Select Works” this semester will be Kriszta Kotsis of the Art History department and Alison Tracy Hale from the English Department.
The guest contributor is generally a local Pacific Northwest artist. This semester it will be Matika Wilbur, a Coast Salish photographer who explores her Native American heritage in her portraiture. Her series We Emerge is now in Kittredge Gallery and she will be part of the Race and Pedagogy conference at the end of the month giving a talk entitled “Learning to Read Photographic Representations: Imaging the Emergence of Salish First Peoples of Washington State and British Columbia.”
Past guest readers have included Tacoma poet laureates Bill Kupinse and Antonio Edwards Jr. In addition to the student open mic, “Crosscurrents” and ASUPS worked to bring “The Elephant Engine High Dive Revival” spoken word tour to Puget Sound last November for a night of poetic mastery featuring the world-famous slam poet Buddy Wakefield.
“Crosscurrents” also has a blog, which now functions as their website, found at http://crossthecurrent.tumblr.com. The blog has information about submitting to “Crosscurrents” and will be an online venue to display past ‘Select Works’ and guest artist interviews.
“We also hope to have all past content available in the library and recent editions online this year,” Vendl said.
In conjunction with Campus Music Network, “Crosscurrents” holds an open mic night for the release of the magazine, where students featured in the magazine are encouraged to read. The open mic will be in the piano lounge behind the Info Center on Dec. 2nd at 6pm.
“Even if you have submitted before and not gotten into the magazine, there is a new set of eyes on the submissions every semester, so I encourage you to submit again!” Vendl said. “It’s a brave thing just to submit and put your work out there.”