ELIZABETH SUSKI
Special to The Leader
Have you ever wanted your work published in a literary magazine? Or perhaps you have some old artwork sitting around that you always loved, but didn’t know what to do with it?
If so, Fredonia’s literary magazine, The Trident, is the place for you.
The Trident is edited by participants of the English department’s Literary Publishing class and is also published with support from the department.
The class is a team of student editors who strive to show the best poetry, art, fiction and nonfiction from writers on and off campus.
The actual founding date of The Trident is unknown, but speculation is that it was first created around 2004 with the help of two former English professors: Dustin Parsons and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
Literary magazines give unpublished authors the chance to submit their work to smaller scales before moving up to the bigger ones.
Some popular literary magazines include Gandy Dancer, American Short Fiction, Ninth Letter, A Public Space and The Kenyon Review.
The staff have high hopes for this year’s issue and plan to accomplish a lot while learning marketing, editing, design and event coordination.
[RELATED: The Trident released with lit-crawl across campus]
“We support and empower the current staff to create an issue that reflects them: their editorial vision and their design aesthetics,” said the professor of the literary publishing course, Michael Sheehan.
“I also hope to continue the work of connecting The Trident to the creative writing, campus and local communities. I think it is important as a venue for student writing. One that is made for students, by students. Any literary magazine stems from the belief that good writing and art are valuable, but I hope we can go beyond the audience that already agrees with that — finding new ways for well-written short stories, poems, essays and visual art to shape and inform conversations and culture at Fredonia and even beyond,” said Sheehan.
In addition to being the class’s professor, Sheehan is an assistant professor of the English department.
“I plan on making a memorable issue; we are thinking of creating an entire section of haikus, which is something that we’ve never done before,” said Heather Stein, a student contributor.
Stein is a sophomore communication: video production and audio/radio major with minors in creative writing and film studies. She is a member of the staff’s design and calls for submission teams.
This year, the staff is trying to make the magazine stand out by accepting submissions from all schools in the SUNY system as well as creating brand new social media accounts to help advertise.
By using the accounts, the publication has been able to reach a broader audience than ever before.
With this new rise of interest in literary magazines, it seems that everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.
“This year, The Trident has the largest staff in its history (there are 24 students on the masthead),” said Sheehan.
Besides the new social media accounts and the website, this year’s issue of The Trident will also feature some new sections.
“The editors are seeking creative works that are hard to categorize or defy expectations. They’re planning to showcase Fredonia’s emerging creative writers in a new section dedicated to freshmen and sophomores,” he said.
While the staff keeps working on their new vision for The Trident, don’t forget to submit your work.
The Trident is accepting submissions until March 11. The staff can be reached via email, (trident.fredonia@gmail.com), Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and on their website,