This semester New Literati, a student-run creative journal, has expanded and will now accept submissions from undergraduate students and alumni. 

New Literati started 21 years ago and has been primarily reserved for New College and Graduate student work. However, this semester the journal has opened their submissions to traditional students with the hopes of sharing student work with a wider audience.  

Timothy Ogene is a New College student and has been an editor of New Literati since last fall. He explained that the board of editors decided to open submissions to traditional undergraduates to foster the sharing of ideas between all St. Edward’s University students.

“We wanted to broaden our scope. We realize that St. Edward’s is a bustling, creative community, it doesn’t make sense for it to be an exclusive journal,” Ogene said.

Ogene hopes that students will be inspired by one another and the overall creativity of the journal.

The journal gives students an outlet to express themselves through their art or literature while also giving them an opportunity to publish their work.

“I like that it gives me an opportunity to share my photos, my work,” photocommunications major Kevin Garza said.  

Expanding the submission to undergraduates could also increase readership of the journal among students.

Students can submit anything from fiction, to poetry, to visual arts and submission guidelines are listed on the journal’s website. This semester, the journal is looking for work that is experimental and questions the concepts of reality, modernity and humanity. They will look for work that highlights the juxtapositions in life, Ogene said.

“We are looking for works that capture this reality, this fact of life that it is not simply just pure, but there is bad and good, black and white, there is everything in between,” Ogene said.

The first submission deadline for the spring was March 1, however, the journal is still accepting submissions on a rolling deadline. These submissions will be added to the website after they are submitted and go through the editorial process.

Bridgid Bender, another editor for the journal and New College student, is excited to see this fresh start for the journal and to see the newest content up on the webpage. She explained that the rolling submissions facilitate a constant flow of new content.

“We’re looking for the website to have new content on a pretty regular basis,” Bender said.

The website is a new addition to the journal and was created last summer. It was recently updated and will be the main medium through which submissions are published this semester. Normally a print version of New Literati is also available. This year the editors are not certain whether it will be printed and said it will depend on available funding.

Ogene, along with all of New Literati’s editors, are pleased with the submissions they have received so far, and look forward to seeing the publication grow.

“I was blown away by the quality of work, it exceeded my expectations,” Ogene said.