More than 20 students and faculty members crammed into University Center, room 122 on Thursday, Feb. 26, for the release of The IUS Review.
The Review is a collection of poems, essays and short stories written and edited by IUS students.
To have material accepted into The Review, students must submit their work to the editors of The Review who then read it and critique it without knowing who composed the work.
The Review also includes pictures and drawings by IUS students, and the book itself was designed by Kate Hentrup, graphic design senior.
Jana Morgan, literature senior and senior editor, said The Review took more than a year to produce.
“We started putting up fliers and asking for people to apply to become editors last spring,” Morgan said.
According to Morgan, there was a large response to the call for submissions, and, unfortunately, not all material made the editors’ cut.
“There was amazing material that did not get in, because we just did not have the room,” Morgan said.
Despite the cuts, Morgan said she was thrilled with the final product.
“I am unbelievably proud to be in this book; I’m unbelievably honored to have worked with the people I worked with, and to be able to be involved with this group of the arts and letters is really just fantastic,” Morgan said.
James O’Neal, senior lecturer in English, is the faculty adviser for The Review.
O’Neal said he was inspired by the amount of people who participated and the material featured in The Review.
“Students are required to produce a lot of writing in classroom context, but this takes writing out of the classroom and students take more ownership of their writing,” O’Neal said. “They see themselves as real writers.”
O’Neal said he thinks The Review is a great way for students to develop their resumé as writers and editors.
“I think a lot of students are unaware of how difficult it is to get published in the outside world, “ O’Neal said.
O’Neal said it was important for students to get their work into something that is as aesthetically pleasing as The Review.
The artwork on the cover of The Review and how it was put together was entrusted to Hentrup. She also has two digital photographs published in The Review.
Hentrup said she had a feeling for what all of the poems meant and used that to develop an overall theme and tone for The Review.
After thank you and congratulation speeches by Morgan and O’Neal, students who had their work featured in The Review were encouraged by their peers to read their material to the crowd.
Melanie Smith, English literature and writing junior, said reading her material in front of an audience is always nerve-wracking. But she also said it helps her get used to public speaking.
“We were all a little nervous about if we would be duking it out over some of the pieces, but most of the works were pretty unanimous,” Smith said. “The difficult part was at the end, because we had so many good pieces.”
By MICHAEL MARCELL
Staff writer
mdmarcel@ius.edu
