St. Cloud State University Upper Mississippi Harvest Publication
By: Jennifer Emerson
For this blog I wanted to inform my audience about the Upper Mississippi Harvest publication at St. Cloud State University. I got a lot of great information from Chinyin Olsen, one of its head editors, about the publication and the process one might go through to get published. I, also, found out what happens after publication! Chinyin Olsen’s information was stated as follows:
“Every Fall we send out a call for submissions to students of St. Cloud State University with a deadline of October 31. All submissions are sent to uppermissharvest@stcloudstate.edu. For the purpose of blind judging, the head editors take away the names and assign each piece a number. Different genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and media) are separated into packets, printed out, and handed to editors of each genre group to read over winter break.
In the spring semester, editors come back with their choices and prepare to judge the pieces with their genre group members. The judging process usually takes a month. Towards the end, the best media piece is picked for the cover. The designers then get to work designing the journal. All the editors decide on font, designs, and placement of genre pieces. Head editors take care of the front and back matter, call for submissions and acknowledgements. The whole team start the copy-editing process, looking for spelling and grammar errors and making sure everything looks ready for print. The journal is put into a PDF and sent to the printer with specific printing guidelines in April and we usually get the printed journal in May. Before it is sent to productions, the proofs are sent to one of the head editors so the journal can be proof-read one last time.
Upper Mississippi Harvest showcases student talent in different literary and art genres. It gives all students on campus, regardless of their major and field of study, to see their work published. Student editors get hands-on experience in editing, proof-reading, copy editing, and team-building skills in making the journal happen, which is all great for writing resumes.
The journal is distributed throughout campus during Mainstreet, Sidestreet, and tabling events. It is also handed out to new students and different departments and offices. Contributors of Harvest get copies to show off their work to friends and family. In the past, we have had in-person release parties where contributors can read their work and talk about their art to community and members of campus that are invited.”
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
A Facebook link for the Upper Mississippi Harvest is:
https://www.facebook.com/UpperMississippiHarvest/
An Instagram link for the Upper Mississippi Harvest is:
https://www.instagram.com/uppermississippiharvest/
LINK TO APRIL 2020 PUBLICATION
A link to the April 2020 Upper Mississippi Harvest is: https://issuu.com/scsuoutlook/docs/umh_2020_combined
LINK TO GOFUNDME
A link to the Upper Mississippi Harvest GOFUNDME page is below. The page was set up to raise funds for the printing of the publication.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/scsu-upper-mississippi-harvest-donations
With such a great publication available right here at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota writers and poets, who may, also, be students at St. Cloud State University, have a wonderful opportunity to get published. Some writers are published for the first time at the colleges and universities that they attend! I think submitting to the Upper Mississippi Harvest is a great way for students to approach the publishing process in an easy way. Please consider submitting your writing to the Upper Mississippi Harvest. The email to submit you work to is uppermissharvest@stcloudstate.edu.