Peacock’s Feet opens submissions

GCSU’s official literary magazine, “The Peacock’s Feet,” is calling all creative writers and artists to submit works before Dec. 3 for its Spring 2011 publication.

The Peacock’s Feet gives students a chance to express themselves and share who they are with their peers through the publication of art, short fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

“The magazine is a living, breathing work,” said Karen McElmurray, faculty advisor for the magazine. “It is a product of hard work, imagination and belief in how various kinds of art, written and visual, come together to make a statement about this town, this school and this particular group of students.”

Armed with an entirely new staff, the editors of “The Peacock’s Feet” are making positive changes and meeting new goals concerning the annual literary publication.

“One of our goals this year is to focus more on advertising for submissions,” said senior English creative writing major Michael Doran. “This year we are trying lots of ways to just get people to know we are here.”

One of these ways is through public readings of original works.

“The best way to make a submission stand out and grab our attention is to read it at one of our Red Earth Readings,” said Jonathan Torres, a graduate student and English major.

Red Earth Readings, where students read their original works aloud downtown at Blackbird Coffee, are held on Friday nights biweekly.

After the Dec. 3 deadline, all submissions are read numerous times and filtered by the appropriate editors.

“Once the literary cream rises to the top, all the staff vote on the best possible submissions in each genre,” Torres said. “We typically publish more poems than prose pieces, but the submission to publication ratio stays pretty even between the genres.”

The post-submission process for “The Peacock’s Feet” is selective, but Doran believes this should not deter students from submitting work.

“Being afraid gets you nowhere,” Doran said. “We may seem like some big, scary publication, but we’re students too. We evaluate the work, not the person writing it.”

One of the many perks that come along with submitting work to “The Peacock’s Feet” is the chance of winning one of the four Peacock Pick awards.

“Two Peacock Picks will go to artists and two will go to writers,” Torres said. “Each award is a $50 honorarium and award winners will read their submissions at our launch reception, which will be held in April 2011.”

Another benefit of submitting work to “The Peacock’s Feet” is the chance to share it with readers on the GCSU campus and beyond.

“(‘The Peacock’s Feet’) is becoming a highly professional, excellent literary magazine,” McElmurray said. “One that we’re sending to some national contests for student journals.”

The editors and advisors of “The Peacock’s Feet” have high hopes and expectations for the 2011 publication of the magazine.

“The magazine allows students and members of the community to express themselves in a way everyone can get a glimpse of,” Doran said. “It allows those people to get a sense of accomplishment for their art, and the ability to get feedback.”

Posted by Lindsay Shoemake on Oct 1 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.