Students can submit work for Scriblerus

By Payton Clark, Arts Editor

The student led literature magazine Scriblerus, named after a group of writers started by Jonathan Swift in 1714, is opening submissions for the 2017 edition. Students can submit works in the categories of poetry, prose and graphic design to be considered by emailing Scriblerus.submissions.2017@gmail.com, until March 18 at midnight.

“The Scriblerus’ is a student run journal for OBU students to publish their original fiction, poetry or nonfiction works in,” senior editor of the Scriblerus Noah Golaboff said. “This year we’ll also be taking art designs from students to be included in the magazine.”

Professor of literature and English Dr. Benjamin Myers believes that the publication has been on Bison Hill for many years.

“It has a long history of publishing poems and stories and essays by student writers,” Myers said. “Some research has been done, but it has been around for decades.”

Following the tradition from 2016, the 2017 edition will be published online.

“It used to be published as a hard copy every year on campus, but last year was the first year that we published it online digitally,” Golaboff said. “We’ll be doing the same this year.”

According to Golaboff, Entropy, or the scientific idea that all things eventually revert to chaos will be the theme for this year’s edition.

“It’s also a short story by Thomas Pynchon that all English majors have to read in their contemporary literature course,” Golaboff said. “It was suggested by one of our editors because he likes the scientific term and the theme in literature, and we thought it was broad enough that it could be applied to works for all sorts of submissions.”

Myers notes that most colleges and universities have a student run magazine, with a purpose of two things.

“The first is to give student writers a place to publish, especially as they’re just learning and starting, it gives them a first publishing place,” Myers said. “The other is to give students who may be interested in going in to publishing after they graduate the experience working as an editor, choosing work, layout and design.”

Golaboff believes that in addition to the potential for experience, Scriblerus allows students to support each other’s works.

“The journal was started to provide an opportunity for students to publish their works,” Golaboff said.

“For our creative writing majors it gives them practice in the submission and editing process, and it’s a great way to see what your classmates are writing.”

While many of the content found in Scriblerus is from English or creative writing majors, Myers encourages students of all majors to consider submitting work.

“Anyone can submit work who sends work to our email following the guidelines,” Myers said.

“Usually it has a lot of creative writing majors in it, but there are also always people who aren’t creative writing or English majors who appear in the magazine as well.”

For those considering submitting to Scriblerus or getting involved, Myers first suggests reading the journal.

“Interested students should first read Scriblerus,” Myers said. “It will be available for sale at a very reasonable price, less than a cup of coffee, after publication.”

Myers believes publications like the Scriblerus allows student writers to get a unique work experience.

“It is a great place to start as a writer,” Myers said. “It’s very hard to break into publishing work in big markets, so it’s very valuable to have a smaller world to practice in.”

Another important benefit found in the Scriblerus is the community it creates among student writers.

“It’s also valuable because it gives students and writers a chance to share in their community,” Myers said. “Sometimes students discover one another in the pages of the Scriblerus, become writing partners sharing their work and growing together. Scriblerus builds community for writers at OBU.”

Golaboff believes that the process of submitting work to the Scriblerus is itself a major benefit to students.

“The main benefit of submitting to the Scriblerus is that it gets students familiar with the submission process if they’re interested in publishing,” Golaboff said. “We follow guidelines based on our courses in publishing and editing on campus, and we have direction from Dr. Myers, with many years of submitting to literary journals, Dr. Newsom who edits a literary journal and Corey Fuller who helped us with the art guidelines.”

Technically all OBU students qualify to be members of Sigma Tau Delta one they have completed Civ, because the English requirements also fulfill these requirements.

“The editing and editing process is handled by Sigma Tau Delta, a group that is normally open to anyone who has taken two courses or six credits of upper level english courses,” Golaboff said.

“Anyone who is in Sigma Tau Delta can then participate in editing for the Scriblerus.”

Now the submission process for work is easier than ever, so Golaboff encourages everyone to take part in this year’s edition.

“When deciding what to write, jot some ideas down, do some preliminary sketches. Maybe take a break, come back and see what stands out to you,” he said.