Grinnell Review revamps selection policy

The combination lit and art magazine, The Grinnell Review, which publishes many student-created pieces of art and literature will soon be found all over campus. Grinnell’s inspired artists and creative writers, most of them unpublished and unknown to the outside world, submit their works to be showcased in the publication.
The pieces are selected for publication based on a very particular set of characteristics.
“Through a discussion-based selection, submissions are judged by their literary merit, their original creativity and their appeal to the Grinnell student body,” said Mario Macias ’11, who has been on the writing selection committee since his first year.
The students working on the publication this year include 20 on the writing selection committee, 17 on the arts selection committee, a writing editor, Jamie Alper ’10, a layout editor, Rachel Smith ’11 and a photo editor, Lawrence Sumulong ’10, who also serves as photography editor for the S&B.
The leaders of the Grinnell Review have been making strong efforts to change the way in which pieces are selected and who selects them, bulking up the selection committee in comparison to years past.
“Jamie and I made a concerted effort to get more people involved in the selection process which I think is a success,” Sumulong said. As a result, the writing committee has doubled in size and the arts committee has also grown significantly.
“It brings more voices to the table, more scopes for looking at our student literature and more of a fair process by which submissions are selected,” Macias said.
Of the many artists chosen for this issue, there was an even mix of first time selectees and regular contributors to the Review.
One first timer was Sara Kay ’13, who submitted a photograph. “My piece is a digital photograph I took of a service door in Bruges this summer,” Kay said.
Alex Reich ’11 has already been published in the Review, but submitted again this year. “I use the Review as a way to express my personal interests and share the poignant moments that I have been fortunate enough to capture on film,” said Reich.
Reich and Kay are just two of the many published Grinnell artists and writers who will comprise the fall semester edition of the Grinnell Review.
Given the many voices which have shaped this semester’s addition, the Fall 2009 Review should be another fine example of the many talents that are embedded in the Grinnell College community.