The Shinnery Review literary magazine faces crunch time for development as the spring deadline for submissions approaches.
The literary magazine will be accepting all 2D art, photography, poetry, prose and short stories until March 1.
Two seniors, Lexi French, English major from Palestine, and Maggie Marshall, English major from Tulsa, Oklahoma, have led The Shinnery Review this year.
The literary magazine has received a few submissions from students but still needs more submissions in all the categories, especially for written pieces.
“We’re really looking for a lot of great writing,” French said. “Some people have submitted a lot, and we have a few that we are considering accepting. There’s a volume, but none of it has been up to par compared with past issues.”
Once the staff receives all submissions, they go through each one, vote on and decide what will be included in the final print magazine at the end of the semester.
“We have to contact publishers for printing and get the design,” said French. “So once we decide all the pieces that go in, we have to get all those on an InDesign file and format the whole thing, which will take lots of long nights and coffee.”
The Black Tulip Release Party, on April 23, is the physical launch party for the literary magazine and Shinnery website. The website is a new addition to the literary magazine.
“It’ll allow us to be able to do readings like recorded people reading their poetry and stuff,” Marshall said. “It’ll open up more doors for how we receive art submissions, too.”
The Department of Language and Literature has an existing connected WordPress account for the Shinnery Review. Since the beginning of the school year, French and Marshall have been gathering content to put on the website for the release.
“We’re supposed to get some more submissions from people who are in Shinnery,” Marshall said. “A lot of Shinnery people haven’t submitted. And our own stuff to submit, too. Writers tend to be procrastinators.”
Though French and Marshall expect a good turn out this year from the staff, once they graduate, there is no one in line to take over the literary magazine next year.
“Senioritis is hard,” French said. “You underestimate it. We were so ambitious coming in. It’s hard because a lot of the people who were passionate about Shinnery have graduated. So it’s just us, trying to get other people involved.”
