The 2018 edition of the Lumen, a creative arts magazine consisting of submissions from Mercyhurst students, is accepting applications.
Various events around campus are going to take place to help promote the Lumen.
These events include open mic nights and short editions of the Lumen that will be published throughout the year.
Students who want to have their work featured in the Lumen can send their work to lumen@mercyhurst.edu.
The deadline for submissions will be 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 17, before Thanksgiving break.
Marnie Sullivan, Ph.D., faculty adviser for the Lumen and assistant professor of English, explained the plans for these mini-Lumens and the magazine’s general plans for the Lumen this year.
“We have a student work study totally devoted to Lumen this year, and the last couple of years we’ve tried to do shorter editions of the Lumen throughout the year, like a little Lumen zine. We’re going to try to get one out in the fall and one out in the spring.”
Sullivan is hopeful that the shorter editions of the Lumen this year will give Mercyhurst students more opportunities to show off their writing.
“I hope that student poetry and creative writing can be more present on campus through the Lumen zine and some broadsheets that we may be doing throughout the year,” Sullivan said.
As for how the Lumen will look this year, Sullivan says that will be up to the graphic design department.
“We never know what the graphic designers are going to do. There’s a lot of creativity in that department, so we never know what they’re going to come up with,” Sullivan said.
The release of the full edition of the Lumen is traditionally done as the capstone event of the Literary Festival, which is in the spring.
The 2016-17 edition of the Lumen was released April 20.
If you wish to become an editor for the Lumen, you should contact Sullivan at lumen@mercyhurst.edu.
The editors in chief this year are Jacob Leach and Sarah Hood.
The first editor meeting for students who are interested in being on the Lumen staff will be Oct. 5 at 5 p.m. in the Senate Board Room on the fourth floor of the library.
The first Lumen open mic night will be Oct. 2 at 4 p.m. in the Cummings Art Gallery.
There, students will be able to read anything, including their own works and the works of authors they enjoy, and there will also be free food.
During the open mic night, a fundraiser will open that students can support.
Money from this fundraiser will go to the Literary Festival for this year.
The Lumen and Literary Festival this year will honor the memory of Kenneth Schiff, Ph.D., who passed away last year. Sullivan said that the Literary Festival this year will be “endowed in his honor.”