Sanford is known to be a place where interests and skills can be properly expressed; No Talent Lies Latent, after all. That’s why this school publishes annual literary magazines, but unfortunately not all art enthusiasts have submitted their work. The Literary Magazine Club, or LitMag, still needs more submissions to have enough work for an issue! With the submission date extended, there’s a window of opportunity for you to send in art and writing. But why should you send in work? An Upper School English teacher and the student head of LitMag have both been interviewed to explain why.

Club Supervisor: Mrs. Elise Burke-Parcha

A thing that separates people from sharing their art is the lack of knowledge about LitMag’s ins and outs. Mrs. Burke-Parcha of Stephen May’s room 201 is here to answer the more technical questions associated with some peoples’ reservations.

What types of art are welcome?

“Any type of student-made art, whether it be a sketch in a sketchbook or a collage or a found poem, a short story. Really, anything that a student would consider original creative art of theirs is welcome and encouraged.”

What are the rules for submitting?

“There aren't any specific rules for submission outside of, obviously, making sure that the art that you are submitting is original and your own. And the way that we get the submissions from LitMag is through a form that we send out where you can attach up to five artworks or pieces of writing, but ultimately you could fill that form out several times during a submission period and submit as many pieces as you are interested in having published.” (See end of article for submission link.)

Is fanart allowed?

“As long as it's original to you and not lifted from another writer or artist, then absolutely we would accept it.”

How long does it take to produce an issue?

“The whole school year is used to produce the issue, since LitMag starts with the submission process, it goes into editorial meetings where they choose some submissions and find a theme to center them around. The magazine is formatted together, and it’s ready to be printed and distributed to students by the end of the year.”

What would you say is the appeal to submitting to LitMag?

“There are so many, but I think the main few would be that it's a great place to start sharing your artwork with the world. Hopefully artists in our community see the value of not just creating work for themselves, but for allowing an audience to be part of that conversation by seeing what they've made. But additionally, of course, it's something that you can put on your CV or resumé to say that you've had your artwork or writing published, or being entered into a contest.”

How could this impact your English grade?

“All English teachers and some art teachers award a small bump of extra credit, especially in the fall semester when we're really trying to get submissions in, so it gives us more time to create the magazine.”

Can it be anonymous?

“Yes, anything can be sent in anonymously. The only thing that I would say in terms of considering whether or not you want your work to be anonymous would be that this is a community that likes to celebrate our artists and writers. The other thing to consider is that if you send your work in anonymously, it can't be awarded one of our art and writing awards for the submission because we wouldn't have someone to award it to.”

How does the selection system work?

“A panel of student editors reads or views your work and assesses it based on their personal aesthetic and whether or not they feel it would be a good fit for this year's issue. But the only thing that I would say about that is that sometimes we get submissions of academic writing that don't quite fit the criteria for the magazine because we are looking for creative writing.”

When is the new deadline?

“We tend to take submissions on a ruling basis, meaning we like to try to keep submissions open for as long as possible. Typically, depending on how many submissions we receive, we try to close them down either between December and February just again to make sure that we have enough time to actually create the magazine itself.”

Senior Editor: Olivia Garcia Chope

Then, there are the sentimental reasons one should submit. How can you benefit from LitMag in a long-term way that’s important to you, not just before submissions, but after? Olivia Garcia-Chope, the senior editor of LitMag, has been interviewed to convey her experience reviewing student work and the magazine.

What would you say is the appeal of submitting to LitMag?

“Being able to see your work submitted and then possibly put it in the LitMag, which is then submitted to national competitions which we have constituently placed very high in is a huge honor and incentive to get your work out there and recognized! You can gain feedback on your work and experience in being published.”

What mistakes should be avoided?

“I think very long stories are always pretty hard for us to assess and then we would have to choose specific parts to submit to the LitMag, which means we are cutting down people's work. So we really don't recommend writing over three pages.”

Why do we need more submissions, and how does this extension impact the magazine-making process?

“We need more submissions, especially art, since the grading process is so different for each person, and we usually end up with low averages, meaning most of the works are not ones we want in the LitMag. This postpones the entire process of choosing a theme and starting to set up and design the magazine as we don't have all of our chosen works.”

What made you decide to be head of LitMag, and how could your motivations be reflected onto potential writers and artists?

“I was co-editor last year, so it was the natural process for me to be the head editor this year. But despite this, I was always very excited by the idea of leading the club and being able to see everyone's hard work be personally put into the magazine. I hope that potential submissions by writers and artists increase as they know how much I care about their work and how much I am rooting for them to make it in. I also want people to know how open-minded LitMag is, and I hope this invigorates and inspires confidence in submissions.”

If any of these have been questions that stemmed your LitMag reservations, hopefully these well-informed answers will convince you to submit your work. Sanford’s Literary Magazine is an overall fantastic opportunity to further your artistic experience, and we hope to see you there!

Submit your work here!