Tag Archives: Contrast

Contrast Lit Mag next year

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After posting about my plans for Palabras to Words next year in a recent entry, I figured that I would do the same for Contrast, our literary magazine. I recently met with this year’s editing team to learn about what putting a magazine together entails, and we discussed some awesome initiatives for next year, including:

Doing a reading with a guest author. Public readings are a great chance for authors to share work, practice flow and rhythm, and gain feedback from others. We were thinking that next year we might invite a spoken word poet to come and read some work along with inviting students to read what they’ve been working on.

Implementing themed workshops. During the fall, Contrast club members will meet on a bi-monthly basis to participate in structured writing sessions, which could be on topics such as character development, setting, conclusions, etc. Workshops might also involve writing activities such as “found objects” writing in which club members would draft solely based on objects (quotes, pieces of art) that we’d bring in.

Having a fall writing contest.  This has been an element of Contrast in the past, and I’m looking to bring it back. Students would enter toward the end of the semester, the top three would win cash prizes, and those winners would be published in our magazine in the spring.

If you’re interested in becoming involved with the creative writing community at McDaniel next semester, be sure to stay tuned for meeting dates and sign up for our mailing list at the fall Involvement Fair!

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Contrast and Free Press upgrading space

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Our two main student publications on campus are the Free Press, which is the student newspaper, and Contrast, our literary magazine. I’ve been involved with the newspaper since I was a freshman, and next year will be my third year as the News Editor. I’ve also become involved with Contrast during this year and will be serving as the Co-Editor during senior year.

Next year should be a particularly exciting time for the Free Press and Contrast because an extreme overhaul as far as space is occurring. The Free Press currently has an office, but it is not in a central location on campus and because of that we don’t draw much of a crowd to our meetings. Contrast does not have its own space on campus at the moment.

When the next school year begins, both organizations will be occupying a room on the first floor of Hill that currently houses the Writing Center, which will be moving to a larger room across the hall. Having a space just for student publications will hopefully give more presence to these organizations on campus and increase the number of students who submit to both publications.

We have just started planning how we want the space to look, but we want to keep all of the Free Press archives in the new room and start a bookshelf for Contrast that will house old issues as well as books with writing prompts. We also want it to be welcoming to all students who wish to write or contribute to student publications.

I think that our writing organizations are important because they allow students to experiment with writing outside of the classroom. There is a freedom in writing for Contrast or the Free Press that is not necessarily afforded when the work is graded. I am really excited to see both of them grow and flourish when the new space is available next year.

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English major events galore!

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The English department is busy this month, so it’s an exciting time to be an English major!

On Thursday, this year’s issue of McDaniel’s literary magazine, Contrast, was finally unveiled! Despite the fact that the magazine did not show up (the printer did not deliver the shipment in 48 hours as promised), the event was successful. Harrison House was full of students, professors, and even family members of those published. People read their published submissions as a slideshow of the issue’s artwork cycled behind them. There was also food–the brownies were delicious!

Last night, the English department, in conjunction with the Honors Program, hosted a literary masquerade. The whole campus was invited to come dressed as their favorite literary characters. I went as Hermione Granger, since I had a Gryffindor scarf left over from my archetypes and Harry Potter presentation. Some of my favorite costumes of the evening included Edgar Allan Poe, Queequeg (from Moby-Dick), Violet Beauregarde (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and Nancy Drew.

There are still more fun English events to come!

This Tuesday, students from Dr. Kathy Mangan’s poetry class will be reading their poetry aloud at Carroll Arts Center. I’m hoping to go if I can find time and some friends to make the walk to the arts center with me.

This coming Monday, the English department, along with McDaniel’s Center for Experience and Opportunity (CEO) will host a panel of alumni discussing what they’ve done with their English degrees. I haven’t yet made up my mind as to what I’ll do once I graduate, so I’m looking forward to some insight and networking.

Next Tuesday, April 23, Shakespeare in the Square will take place in Red Square to honor the birthday of William Shakespeare. McDaniel’s improv troupe, Dangersauce, will perform a comedic version of a Shakespearean play, and other students will read or reenact works of Shakespeare of their choice. It should be fun, and I might try to find a sonnet of Shakespeare that I like to read aloud.

Having such an active English department makes me happy to be an English major at McDaniel!

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Getting back in action

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Like so many others, last week I caught what has come to be called the McVirus and the McPlague, so I was home from Thursday morning through Sunday evening recovering. Though students on campus coined those terms to include the name of our college, it’s important to know that gastroenteritis, the medical name of the McVirus has been widespread across the region this year and the disease definitely did not originate here. And because college students live in such close quarters, a quick and wide spread of a virus like this could have happened on any college campus, not just McDaniel.

I came back to McDaniel after my four-day weekend feeling about 90% better, but my homework and other obligations were 110% ready for me to be back. I’ve been doing a reasonably good job keeping up with things, but I still get tired pretty easily. Since it feels like I have a million things today and they were stressing me out by floating around in my head, I made a list on one of my whiteboards of assignments and when this week they need to be completed by. This way, instead of convincing myself I have to do 50 things, I’m able to prioritize and break things up into smaller tasks.

Last night was fun because at 8:00, I met up with other members of Contrast, our campus literary magazine, so we could decide which prose submissions we should include in the magazine. Contrast holds a contest at the beginning of every spring semester, and McDaniel students are allowed to submit up to three pieces in each of three categories: prose, poetry, and artwork. The authors/creators of three best entries in each category, as judged by the members of Contrast, win prizes! Going through the prose pieces ended up being a long (and even tedious at times) process, but it was worthwhile because we were able to thoroughly discuss each piece before deciding whether or not we should publish it. While one piece was everyone’s clear favorite, the most difficult part of the selection process was choosing which pieces should receive second and third place in the prose category. Eventually though, we came to a satisfying decision that we all agreed upon. I can’t wait to do it all over again for poetry next week!

Today was fun because I finally had a chance to shadow a writing tutor in the Writing Center for the first time. (I was supposed to shadow her last week, but I began experiencing symptoms of the McVirus within an hour of when that was supposed to happen.) In my Peer Tutoring class, we’ve been reading a lot about the pedagogy and philosophy of writing centers, so it was nice to finally see a lot of that in action! Once the appointment was over, I also enjoyed talking a couple of the writing tutors who didn’t have appointments. Since I was sick last week, it had been a while since I had had a nice conversation with some of my peers.

Overall, I’m doing the best that I can without overburdening myself. I know that if I try to do too much at once, I’ll stress myself out and I also won’t have enough energy to get me through the rest of the week. Tonight, I’m looking forward to a couple of meetings with Alpha Lambda Delta, our first-year honor society, and the Free Press, our student newspaper, before hitting the books and hopefully going to bed at a reasonable hour!

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