By Jordyn McGinnity
Lumen Reporter
Volume 76 of the Viterbo University literary and arts magazine Touchstone was released Wednesday, April 11 in a party held in the library’s Robers Conference Room from 6 to 8 p.m., which was attended by approximately 40 people.
Touchstone features poetry, prose, and artwork created by students. The release party allowed visitors to view the featured artwork on display as well as hear some of the authors read the work they had published in this year’s edition and pick up their own free copy of the magazine.
Visiting assistant professor of English Rebecca Lehmann read several of her own poems from her recently published book, Between the Crackups, as a guest speaker.
“I feel that the library was a good choice for a student-based publication location,” said Derek Freese, a senior studio arts major from Sauk Rapids, Minn. and the co-editor for the arts section of Touchstone. “It allows students easy access. The library was glad to have us and I hope to continue this tradition and keep students excited.”
Raisa Benusa, a senior English major from Arcadia, Wis., is the literary editor of Touchstone this year.
“The Touchstone magazine features Viterbo students’ work,” Benusa said. “My responsibilities as literary editor are collecting the literary works that students submit and, with the help of my literary staff, selecting which poems and short stories will be published.”
Freese shares his work as co-editor with Amy Braaksma, who is also the web designer. He is part of a four-person team including a graphic designer and the advisor for the arts section of Touchstone that together chooses the showcased art.
“We put up posters around campus asking for Touchstone submissions and have a drop-off location for students to submit their art,” Freese said about the submission and selection process. “We then look to see if the art is a strong piece that holds up to the standards of Touchstone to decide if it makes it into the magazine.”
Freese said that another thing the arts section of Touchstone works for is to create a cohesive body of work so that the pieces go together.
“Traditionally the students weren’t notified ahead of time that their work would be included in Touchstone and they would have to come to the release party to find out, but this year since the exhibition was in the library we notified them so that they could frame their work and have them ready for the exhibition,” Freese said.
The literary selection process also has several parts and considerations.
“First, students send me the works that they want published and I put them on a document and take off the author’s names so that the works are anonymous before I or my staff read them,” Benusa said.
“After that, I send all the pieces to my literary editors and together we read them, rate them, go over the positives and negatives of each piece, and decide which works will be published,” Benusa said.
Benusa told Lumen that the last step in the literary selection process is finding out how many pages are being allotted to the literary section of Touchstone, and if any further cuts need to be made to meet the page limit. The authors are then notified if their works will be published or not.
Unlike the arts section of Touchstone, the literary editors do not specifically focus on theme or cohesion when making their selections.
“The literary editors get together to talk about the works, but we don’t pick based on having a theme like friendship or love,” Benusa said. “We pick based on how we feel about the works. Generally, the works published have an overall tone that seems similar, but we don’t have a theme in mind when we make our selections. If we did, we would only ask for submissions from the chosen theme for that year.”
“A lot of people think that we only receive and publish English majors’ works,” Benusa said. “I want everyone to know that we receive works from all disciplines. We will accept and publish work from anyone, as long as it makes it through the selection process.”
The arts section of Touchstone also accepts a wide range of submissions, including paintings, pottery, sculptures, and digital works.
This year, 11 different student authors were published by the literary section of Touchstone, and 25 students had their artwork featured in the magazine.
