Campus literary magazines have traditionally provided students an opportunity to showcase their literary and poetic talent. Since 1975, Caesura, the official literary magazine of the English department, has worked to provide that. This year, an emerging student-run literary magazine, The Main Street Journal, aims to further acknowledge the university's literary talent, and even include submissions from the greater region of Delaware, according to junior Dave Brown, the group's founder.
"I always wanted to start it," Brown says. "I read a copy of Caesura. It's not that I wasn't impressed with it. I just wanted to see something different."
Brown, an art history major, says he came up with the idea of starting another literary magazine while working in the university's special collections, as well as reading publications such as Paris Review and Harvard Review. Unlike Caesura, Brown has registered his magazine as a student organization, associating it with the university while maintaining flexibility, he says. The Main Street Journal's editorial and layout staff of approximately 20 students is looking to draw work from students with diverse majors.
While Caesura has traditionally released a publication once per year in the English department office, The Main Street Journal plans to release a publication twice per year and distribute it around the campus, as well as in local businesses. The two groups, nevertheless, don't plan on clashing. They may hold events together, Brown says.
Senior Bailey Kung, a Caesura staff member and English major, says while she initially saw the possibility of competition between the two groups, she now hopes they can work to share ideas.
"We don't want to have any sort of monopoly on students," Kung says. "At first, I thought there was going to be serious competition."
However, she soon saw a cooperative aspect of the situation.
"We had different deadlines," Kung says, "so it could be that someone missed the The Main Street Journal one, so then they can submit to ours."
Caesura has encountered several problems, including organization, distribution and a Web site that hasn't been updated since 2006, Kung says. However, Caesura has the advantage of English department sponsorship and donors over The Main Street Journal, which must hold fundraisers and seek advertisers, she says. Because of this, Caesura can offer official awards to the writers of the best works. Both publications have faculty advisors in the English department - Bernard Kaplan for Caesura and Phillip Flynn for The Main Street Journal.
Kung says Caesura operates with a small, dedicated staff, which makes it simpler to organize, but more difficult to distribute. The group has tried placing copies of the publication in places like Trabant University Center, but they quickly disappeared, which made it hard to replace constantly, she says.
Brown says his only problem with Caesura is that it functions only through the English department. After finally hearing about it by word of mouth, he couldn't find a copy of it around campus, he says.
Despite the differences between the two publications, students are still planning on submitting to both. Freshman and short-story writer Camille Turner plans on submitting to Caesura, but hopes to additionally submit to The Main Street Journal in the spring.
"I think it's great that there are both places for literary talent," Turner says. "I think it's good if they can get a lot of people to get that interested, although I know that by word of mouth Caesura seems to be more prominent."
Turner, an English major, says she hopes the competition will create more attention for both publications.
"With political clubs you really can't have one without the other," she says. "I plan to submit to both next semester if I can find out when the due dates for each of them are."
In addition to accepting submissions for publication, The Main Street Journal also provides a feedback deadline each semester. Writers can submit work to the feedback e-mail address listed on the Web site, and in time receive their work with comments by the publication's staff. Brown says they received approximately 15 feedback submissions. Many students, out of shyness, are unwilling to have their work read by the public, he says.
Kung says she wishes those who started The Main Street Journal had tried to help improve Caesura before making their own publication.
"The Main Street Journal people are trying to make it work, and it looks good," she says. "It can be harder to start from nothing, but it's also easier because they can make their own rules."
The Main Street Journal, which will include short biographies of its contributors, is seeking submissions from students from a variety of backgrounds, Brown says. Its first release date is expected to be this winter.
"We want those economics majors, we want those health science majors to submit," he says, "because those kids have plenty to say. They have plenty of creativity, and to give them an outlet for that is a cool idea."
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