Get Creative with “Calliope”

“Calliope,” ESU’s literary magazine. Photo Credit / Jamie Reese
“Calliope,” ESU’s literary magazine. Photo Credit / Jamie Reese
“Calliope,” ESU’s literary magazine.
Photo Credit / Jamie Reese

By Regan Hoerl
SC Staff Writer

ESU’s literary magazine, “Calliope,” offers students a creative outlet on campus to express themselves through poetry, prose, photography, and artwork. The magazine can be found in plenty of places on campus and is free of charge.

“Calliope,” published once a year and full of student and community member’s work, is an important component through the university that should not be overlooked. I am the Editor-inChief, and being the Editor-in-Chief is not an easy task.

As soon as we get enough submissions, the editors for “Calliope” get to work on copyediting, reading, and discussing the work that is anonymously posted to the club’s D2L page—that’s right, we use D2L.

I make sure that students are participating on time by creating deadlines and networking with other literary magazines of neighboring universities and colleges. I also train new members for different editorial positions with the magazine.

All in all, we always have a lot of work throughout the semesters, and the time flies by. What I believe makes the magazine so wonderful and successful is that it is completely student-run and produced.

The members of the club take the time out of their busy schedules to make choices on which pieces should be published, to discuss the cover photo, and to create the skeleton of the book for the editor to produce at the end of the academic year.

Professor Rick Madigan is the faculty advisor. He sits back at meetings and production and just oversees what the students’ produce. He merely guides and serves as the voice of reason for work that needs TLC and questions on grammar. He also serves as the scheduler of event tasks that students are not permitted to do.

Dr. Madigan is the nucleus of brainstorming and networking for the club members and always has a new idea or task for the members of the club to accomplish. He is also a major influence on the number of submissions the magazine receives because he teaches many of the creative writing classes ESU offers.

“Calliope’s” major purpose is to construct a piece of publication that allows students to express themselves in a way that not many other clubs can on campus. Students have the opportunity to be published based on their fine creative work that they can take with them for the rest of their careers, even though creative writing may not be the field that they go into.

Anyone can submit to “Calliope”; there is no limit on the amount of submissions “Calliope” can take in the academic year.

My advice to students who are planning on submitting a piece of work to “Calliope” is pretty simple: make sure your prose or poetry is submitted in Microsoft Word; the photography and artwork is submitted as a JPEG; and have no more than five poems or prose in a single submission.

It is not wise to submit an entire collection of your poetry because it would take at least a month to get through every poem you submit. Also, make sure your work is in its best condition, meaning that it has been proofread several times and is clear to the reader.

Do not be afraid to submit to “Calliope;” there’s no harm in trying. When a student submits to “Calliope,” their work is posted to our D2L page anonymously. That way, our editors do not have any bias towards works they think should be published—even their own.

If you’d like to submit to “Calliope,” the email address is esucalliope@gmail.com. Remember, there’s no harm in submitting; the best thing that can happen is that your work is published.

Email Regan at:
rhoerl@live.esu.edu