The SMU English creative writing department is reviving its long dormant literary magazine, Espejo, in an online form. The new Web site, available Tuesday, will provide a venue for students to publish stories, poems, photographs, plays, essays and even music.
Though the literary magazine hasn’t been issued since 2003 and has been published sporadically since the ’90s (when it was published briefly under the name of Garcia’s Kitchen), the history of SMU’s literary magazine goes back to the ’60s. The original title, Espejo, has been restored to connect the new form to the magazine’s long history.
Espejo is the Spanish word for mirror, or model, and according to English creative writing professor and magazine’s faculty advisor, C.W. Smith, “[the title] is appropriate to SMU’s regional location and to the idea that the work in it reflects the talent and interests of the SMU writers who contribute to it.”
Lack of funding and low student involvement caused the magazine to go out of print, but recent efforts by creative writing student Leigh Katherine Camp and professor C.W. Smith (both assign the other credit for the idea) have brought the magazine into a new era. Camp says she asked Smith about the magazine thinking that one was already available.
“I thought it was lame that there wasn’t one considering the work I see in class,” she said. “People should have a chance to be more involved.”
While Camp originally wanted another print addition of the magazine, she was eventually won over by the many benefits of the new online form. Not only does the online format allow for easy submission and publication of short stories, poems, plays and essays, it allows for the exhibition of student photography, visual art, music and even film via YouTube link.
Furthermore, there are no production costs, eliminating the need for funding from the English department or Program Council. “We’re all about easy at Espejo,” Camp says.
Like the original magazine, the site is entirely student edited, produced and distributed. While Camp and fellow creative writing student Ashley Winder collect and edit content, more Web-savvy students Jami Wedel and Shawn White design and edit the easy to navigate Internet site.
“They’ve been really amazing,” Camp says. And though for the time being Camp must go through Wedel in order to post new items, eventually Wedel and White will make it so that Camp and any future staff members can post items independently, which will allow the site to continue as long as students are interested.
Along with submitted work, Espejo will also provide a venue for the winners of SMU’s various writing contests. All the winners of the 2007-2008 creative writing awards for fiction and poetry are featured, and the winners of various English department academic essay contests are soon to come.
Previously the winners of such awards were announced, but the work behind those wins was never made available. Espejo will allow the student body to see what it takes to win one of these awards, and perhaps in the future an archive of winners past and present.
English student and this year’s first-prize poetry contestant, Beau Rice, said he had heard about Espejo’s “hey-day” from poetry professor Jack Meyers and was “excited to hear that Espejo is back up and running.” So when Camp e-mailed him asking for him to submit his work, he was happy to help.
Camp says that at this early stage it’s been hard to get people to submit. All the prize winners submitted their work, “Probably because they’ve already put themselves out there. ” But other classmates have been more reticent.
“With Facebook anyone could read something on Espejo and then go find the writer online,” she said. “Some people are nervous about that.”
Camp also says that since most people hadn’t yet heard of Espejo they were reluctant to submit.
Despite reservations, the site already has a large collection of work for its first online issue. Along with the six creative writing contest winners, there are four short stories, six poems, one play, five photos, two art works and a couple of academic essays. Space is available for both music and film, though none have been submitted yet.
