ASU Polytechnic

Spotlight on Sarah Dillard, by Haley Larson

Superstition Review

sarahdillard_0_0Sarah Dillard, Fiction Editor for the dazzling new issue of Superstition Review, shared a few moments of her busy schedule with me to discuss her experiences as a student intern. An Illinois native, Sarah joined the Literature, Writing, and Film major at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus in 2007 after a few years in Indiana. This is her first semester with Superstition Review. She will pass her knowledge along to next semester’s interns as she wraps up her undergraduate career in preparation for next month’s graduation.

Haley Larson: What is your preferred genre as a writer? As a reader?

Sarah Dillard: As I writer, I prefer to write Nonfiction because it allows me to tap into my inner emotions to create a piece of work that emulates my life and beliefs in some form. When I first began taking nonfiction writing courses last semester, I was a bit intimidated by the process of writing about myself and allowing others to read my work. Since then, I have been able to reflect on my writing and release any inhibitions that I previously had. As a reader however, I prefer fiction pieces because they allow me to escape my own reality and focus on something new and interesting.

HL: Who influences your own work and your aesthetic?

SD: It’s hard for to pin point just one author who influences my own work and aesthetic; there are many authors who that I find inspirational and influential! For me, it’s best to surround myself with different writing styles and try to take the inspirations I have drawn from their writing to incorporate it into my own unique style.

HL: How did you first hear about Superstition Review? Who or what aspect of the internship encouraged you to apply?

SD: I first heard about Superstition Review before I even applied to ASU. I emailed Duane Roen to ask him about the Literature, Writing, and Film program and internship opportunities and he mentioned that Trish Murphy started an online literary magazine. I knew I wanted to save the internship until my last semester of school, so as soon as I received the application, I filled it out right away. I wanted this internship because I knew I would gain a great deal of knowledge and insight into the publishing business.

HL: What do you think of the online/paperless format of this internship and publication?

SD: One of the reasons I was attracted to this internship was because it was offered entirely online. I have such a busy schedule, so I liked that it offered a flexible working/learning environment. I feel like I am more creative and productive late at night, so this internship has allowed me the opportunity to work whatever hours I choose, as long as I get my work done. By having Superstition Review published in an online format allows for easy accessibility to our readers. How often to you come across a good article in a magazine just to find out the magazine was accidentally thrown out or misplaced? Superstition Review keeps archives of issues which allow readers to see accomplishments of the past, as well as the present. Even though this magazine is relatively new in the literary field, Superstition Review has published high profile authors in past issues and this online format lets readers view works from these prominent authors.

HL: What has been one of your most exciting assignments/responsibilities at Superstition Review this year?

SD: This whole process has been exciting! One of my favorite moments of Superstition Review was having the opportunity to interview highly successful authors whom I admired and respected. Mary Sojourner and Erin McGraw are big names in the literary field; I was star-struck! I couldn’t have asked for a better experience to connect to the literary world.

HL: What is currently keeping you busy at Superstition Review?

SD: I just finished reading a record number of submissions and sending out acceptance/rejection letters. It was a very time consuming process but I learned so much from it! Now I am just anxiously awaiting the launch of Issue 3 while tying up some loose ends.

HL: With a record number of submissions this year, how have you balanced being a student and a member of busy literary and art journal?

SD: At first, it was hard to find balance between this internship, taking 22 credit hours, and working on top of that. After the first few weeks though, I began to find myself in a routine that I was comfortable with. I think the key to maintaining balance is to stay focused and organized, not to mention laugh at the crazy moments I can’t control! These elements have helped me immensely throughout this internship and semester.

HL: How has your understanding of a literary journal changed by being a part of Superstition Review? What surprises you most about the start-to-finish process of publishing an issue?

SD: I have always had an interest in the publishing world but never knew what it entailed or the work that goes behind publishing a magazine. There were times where I would think to myself there’s no way I’m going to get this done, but in the long run, I learned that everything falls together with hard work. I have even more respect for editors and publishers of literary magazine because of this experience. I can’t say there’s anything that surprised me, because I honestly didn’t know what to expect when signing up for this, which allowed me to keep an open mind and go with the flow.

HL: How has this experience enhanced your education or preparedness? What do you think you’ll take away from this internship after its completion?

SD: This internship has provided me with hands-on work experience that I don’t think I could have gained anywhere else. The online learning environment required me to communicate effectively with peers and stay on top of tasks. I have also increased my organization skills immensely. This internship also taught me what it’s like to work as a team on a project that I can be proud of. Everyone at Superstition Review has been extremely helpful whenever I’ve had a question or was confused about something. I share the role as a fiction editor with Rebekah Richgels who has helped me guide me throughout the process of publishing this magazine. Even though this was an online environment, I feel I was able to connect with my managing editor, advisors, and peers.

HL: Will you consider working on another publication after completing your internship with SR? What are your plans post-graduation?

SD: Once I graduate in May, I plan to return to school to obtain my teaching certification. I want to teach high school composition and literature. This internship has inspired me to create a classroom publication once I am a teacher that will allow students to manage and organize a literary magazine. I want to pass the skills I have gained through Superstition Review to my students.

Introducing Elizabeth Anderson, by Veronica Martinez

Superstition Review

elizabethanderson_0_1Intern Veronica Martinez interviews Elizabeth Anderson about what her challenges and rewards are as the Solicitation Coordinator for Superstition Review.

Veronica Martinez: What has your intern experience been like so far? 

Elizabeth Anderson: Coming into the internship, I was expecting to do more of the tedious random assignments that no one else wanted to do and be treated like I did nothing for the magazine. There have been many deadlines and a lot of very stressful projects, but I have realized that I have been given a string of support that I can reach at any given moment. My favorite part has been the reading last week at ASU East because it was rewarding to see that the writers we contact do actually respond and are willing to give back to the community.

VM: Can you give us a short description of what your internship duties are?

EA: I am currently the Solicitations Coordinator. I searched for fiction, nonfiction, art, and poetry writers to add to our current Solicitations list. I contacted bookstores, Undergrad and Grad programs, libraries and more to send out the fliers to ask for submissions for issue 3. I am in charge of reminded the genre editors of their deadlines. I am currently working on adding names to our distributions list from people who attended the AWP conference.

VM: What are your hopes for the future, in regards to what you are learning through this internship experience? 

EA: In regards to this internship, I am learning the basic skills of discipline and deadlines. I will be able to apply these skills to my dream of becoming a writer or an editor for a well-known magazine like Time or Life. I am learning how to be a committed intern, and have realized that there is a climb to get to the top. I hope that this internship will help me pursue my dreams and work hard for what I want. I hope to apply my new-found knowledge of the contemporary writers and the varieties of writing styles to my future work. Overall, this internship has been very inspiring.

VM: What’s one fun thing you can tell us about yourself? 

EA: I am absolutely obsessed with the Twilight series. I am one of nine children. I plan to move to Seattle when finished with school. I am an Art History minor.

Governor’s Arts Awards

Superstition Review

Intern Veronica Martinez comments on Superstition Review‘s nomination for a Governor’s Arts Award.

On Tuesday April 14th the arts and cultural community will gather for the 2009 Governor’s Arts Awards. The Governor’s Arts Awards are presented annually by the Office of the Governor, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and Arizona Citizens for the Arts. This year we are excited that Superstition Review has been nominated in the Arts in Education Category; this category recognizes an Arizona individual or organization for an outstanding contribution to arts in education.

As a current intern with Superstition Review, I am very glad to be a part of such a project that not only provides a great opportunity to ASU students but also helps to engage and build the literary community in Arizona.

Amber Mosure, also a current intern, had this to mention about SR: “I really like all the hands-on experience I’m getting with my internship with Superstition Review. I feel very confident that I’m gaining very pertinent inside knowledge about what goes into putting together a literary publication and being involved in creating the final product is very rewarding and satisfying.”

So join us in congratulating Superstition Review on this nomination with special thanks to, Patricia Murphy, Managing Editor, for taking on this endeavor and together with ASU students producing a wonderful literary publication that we all can feel rewarded with. We will be rooting for SR!

For more information about the 2009 Governor’s Arts Awards click here.

Spring 2009 Reading Series

Superstition Review

Reading

Superstition Review hosted its first of two readings for its Spring 2009 Reading Series. The Reading Series began in 2008 with a goal to “form a writing community where students can interact with published authors, and where students can also share their own work,” according to Patricia Murphy, Managing Editor of Superstition Review. On March 16th, authors Cynthia Hogue and Peter Turchi dazzled the audience at ASU’s Polytechnic campus with their poetry and short fiction. Hogue read a group of elegant poems that the audience could relate to well, and Turchi read a comical short story that entertained, as well as enlightened, the audience. Those who missed the reading will be able to enjoy an audio podcast of the event here later this month.

Cynthia Hogue
The last reading in the Spring 2009 Reading Series will be held on April 20th at 7:30 p.m. in the Cooley Ballroom of ASU’s Polytechnic campus and will feature student writers from ASU. Students interested in reading their work should e-mail superstitionreview@asu.edu, title it “Student Reading Series,” provide reliable contact information, and paste the work they plan to read in the body of the e-mail. The deadline to submit is April 10th. The final reading will also be a launch party for the new issue, so be sure to attend.

Peter Turchi

Spring Reading Series

Superstition Review

Monday, March 16th Superstition Review will be hosting the first reading of its Spring Reading Series. Arizona State University Creative Writers Cynthia Hogue and Peter Turchi will share their poetry and fiction. The reading will be held in the Cooley Ballroom at the ASU Polytechnic Campus at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The reading is generously sponsored by the Student Affairs organization at the Polytechnic Campus and is catered with organic food shares donated by the CSA. Our menu includes:

Swiss Chard Boules Stuffed w/ Chili Pepper Risotto
Roasted Vegetable Dumplings w/ Dipping Sauce
Local Orange Pico de Gallo w/ Tortilla Chips

Cynthia Hogue has published nine books, including an electronic chapbook, Under Erasure, in thedrunkenboat.com (December 2007), The Incognito Body (2006), and two co-edited editions, Innovative Women Poets: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry and Interviews (2006), and the first edition of H.D.’s The Sword Went Out to Sea, by Delia Alton (2007). Among her honors are an Arizona Commission on the Arts Project Grant and a MacDowell Colony Residency Fellowship, both in 2008. Professor Hogue taught in the M.F.A. program at the University of New Orleans before moving to Pennsylvania, where she directed the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University for eight years. While in Pennsylvania, she trained in conflict resolution with the Mennonites and became a trained mediator specializing in diversity issues in education. In 2003, she joined the Department of English at ASU as the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry.

Peter Turchi is the author of five books: a novel, The Girls Next Door; a collection of stories, Magician; a non-fiction account of the exploits of treasure hunter Barry Clifford, co-written with the subject; an artist’s exhibit catalog, Suburban Journals: The Sketchbooks, Drawings, and Prints of Charles Ritchie; and Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer. He has also co-edited, with Charles Baxter, Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life, and, with Andrea Barrett, The Story Behind the Story: Twenty-Six Stories by Contemporary Writers and How They Work. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has taught at Northwestern University, Appalachian State, and the University of Houston, and for 15 years he directed and taught in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. He now teaches and is Director of Creative Writing and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.

Join us Monday, March 16th to see these talented writers present their original work. I personally have found the readings not only enjoyable and enlightening, but inspirational to my own work as a writer. I have found few experiences to be as motivational as attending a live reading with contemporary authors. The readings have grown increasingly popular over the past year since the magazine first began the series, and our upcoming reading looks to be our most popular to date. We here at Superstition Review are excited to have such respected authors representing the magazine. We look forward to seeing you all there.

written by Alisha Allston

SUBMISSIONS PERIOD ENDS and Poly Harvest CSA.

Superstition Review

To all writers and artists who have contributed work this season for submission in Superstition Review, we interns are very grateful and appreciate your hard work just as much as you appreciate ours. If you’ve been solicited and responded to our submissions crew, or have already sent in your work via e-mail, take a load off your shoulders and sit back. Halloween has come and gone, and there’s plenty of left-over candy to relax with.

While the fall season is finally, truly and undeniably setting in with the holidays, the time to think of harvests and bounty has arrived. Among the harvests most significant to those of us here at Superstition Review is the PolyHarvest CSA. If you’ve been to any of our readings or are planning to go to the next one, you should know that the wonderful catering we have done with fresh fruits and veggies is courtesy of the PolyHarvest CSA.

What is the PolyHarvest CSA? A CSA is a Community Supported Agriculture program. In a CSA, community members buy “shares” of produce through a contract. They pay up front for these shares, and as a result, farmers benefit by receiving steady upfront payment in order to support themselves, and the community benefits by receiving fresh fruits and vegetables, and by learning more about where produce comes from.

In the PolyHarvest CSA, produce shipments come in every Thursday. The PolyHarvest CSA is affiliated with Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus. This program is especially relevant to Polytechnic campus because of Polytechnic’s theme of “healthy living” and ASU president Michael Crow’s focus on community involvement.

Superstition Review got involved with the PolyHarvest CSA when our supervisor, Patricia Colleen Murphy, contacted PolyHarvest CSA’s coordinator to see if catering was available. Forming alliances in the community is important out here–PolyHarvest CSA also donates to the House of Refuge in Phoenix, which is a shelter and support system for homeless and other disadvantaged people.

PolyHarvest CSA recently has had kale, arugula, bokchoi and other greens in season. Additionally, they’ve had potatoes, tubers, squash, melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, green onions, and more available. Their next season begins very soon, so visit the website and contact their coordinator, Chris Wharton, for more information or to get a contract and get involved. Donations are also welcome!

Readings and Submissions — Keep it coming!

Superstition Review

Thanks to everyone who has submitted so far! We have really got some great work coming in, and keep in mind you still have until the end of October to keep submitting your work.  Our editors are keeping very busy and doing a great job of organizing and sorting through submissions so far.

Likewise, we’ve got our second reading in our reading series coming up on Monday, October 13th at 7:30 p.m. Again, it will be hosted in the Cooley Ballroom in the Student Union at the ASU Polytechnic campus. This reading features work by writing faculty from various community colleges. Hope to see you there.

Working up the perdition and drive to complete and finish a piece for submission is among the greatest challenges most writers face. For a lot of early writers, such as Miguel de Cervantes or the Marquis de Sade have used time imprisoned in order to focus on their ideas, which eventually developed into literary classics! Though we all can’t become part of the Western Canon, there are a lot of authors today who still make it big–big screen…

Learn more about how top American contemporary authors can get from a blank page to a big screen next update. Until next time!

We Are Not Machines.

Superstition Review

Among online literary publications, Superstition Review is unique; we are based out of Arizona State University (Polytechnic Campus), and we do not run our magazine out of a physical office. Suffice to say, this provides some advantages and disadvantages.  (Though, I’ve got to say that pretty much everybody universally enjoys working in their pajamas.)

Another one of our distinguishing features is that we are a student-run publication. We are in the thick of words and work–we read for our classes, we read to publish, we go to work, we do our homework, and we also publish this Review.

Keeping that in mind, I feel the two main components of the SR experiences are growth and learning.

Every word to this blog, every minute touch up of the site, every poem submitted to our editors enables SR to grow. And as a creative writer myself, I know especially how much writers grow just by building up the strength of their own work and courage just to send something in with the hopes of publication.

We learn; every day is a learning experience. Some of us have never worked this close with publishing, or exclusively in an online environment, or on these many deadlines. Some of us have worked like this before, but with a new team, one always has to adjust to new rhythms. Hopefully, you are learning alongside us every step of the way.

Gearing up Superstition Review

Superstition Review

After the successful release of our Spring 2008 issue, Superstition Review is back again to present and accept new writing works for your enjoyment. We already have many events and meetings planned, and the best place to keep a heads up on new developments and fresh contact is here on our blog. Keep an eye out for announcements! Here are a few things you should look forward to, coming up soon:

First Reading Series Event: 7:30 p.m. — Monday, September 8th, 2008.

Our readings will be hosted in the Cooley Ballroom in the Student Union at the ASU Polytechnic campus. Admission is always free, and refreshments will be served. This reading will feature writers from the Spring issue of the Superstition Review.

Future readings are scheduled for Monday, October 13th and Monday, November 17th.

Submissions: The Superstition Review is an online national literary publication based out of Arizona State University. We are currently accepting submissions through the month of October. If you are a writer interested in being published, please come check out our submission guidelines. Our projected release for issue 2 is December 2008, and is made possible with your submitted contributions.