Parnassus, the student body literary and visual art journal, received a record number of submissions this year and the journal's release party took place last Thursday, April 24.
The journal accepted submissions from photography, visual art, creative nonfiction, fiction and poetry. The journal’s staff evaluated submissions weekly, with a limited space for acceptance, and chose a theme for the journal. This semester's theme was “Hephaestic Voices.”
Hephaestic voices are voices that may be overlooked, just as Hephaestus was in mythology. This is something the team leaned into this year while choosing submissions for the final journal.
Through this theme, the journal hoped to represent every voice on campus through art. They also developed a willingness to hear and represent community voices.
“It was definitely a really enthusiastic atmosphere,” senior Parnassus staff member and English literature major Lydia Channell said. She talked about the appreciation for the cover art and staff picks, especially when the students came to read their pieces aloud.
The atmosphere was focused and supportive, with more students becoming interested in Parnassus over the years.
“I think more and more students every year that I’ve been here are a little bit more tuned into what Parnassus is,” said Channell. The highlight for her was getting to hear from the writers and artists about what inspired their pieces and why their work was so important to them.
Channell said that this release party achieved its goal of celebrating student creativity because of the record number of submissions.
“There’s definitely a number of pieces in the issue this year that touch on pretty controversial or touchy topics,” she said. However, these topics represent the student body and Hephaestic Voices, she said.
The team was very passionate about the journal this year, Chanell said. This led to some “intense conversations” while choosing a theme, but these weren’t necessarily bad conversations, she said.
“Especially when we were trying to narrow it down to a theme, there were just some really intense conversations, not in a bad way. Nobody was angry or anything,” she said. Channell said they used their passion for their best work.
Senior Matthew Roach, Parnassus’ student editor this year, touched on this during his opening remarks at the release party.
This passion is something Parnassus hopes to continue next year. The next student editor, Sophia Bishop, hopes to continue to diversify the journal’s staff with many different majors.
Channell invites all students to submit to Parnassus in the coming years.
“I would say, just submit something,” she said, “there’s no judgment behind the scenes. We’re looking at them and thinking, wow, I wish we could publish all of these…submit anything.”
Submissions for the next journal will be heavily advertised in the fall, with specific guidelines for word counts and the submission process.
