Students in charge of Keene State’s Bricowlage Student Journal have entered the spring semester with ambitions of publishing a full digital magazine by the end of the academic year.
The journal’s e-board is looking into options for creating an official web page linked from the Center for Research and Writing page. They currently have 14 stories submitted by students they are looking to include in the publication, according to sophomore Evan Parker, the club’s president..
Senior Abi Heyd, the group’s treasurer and head editor, cited greater protections against artificial intelligence (AI) software as a motivation for attaching the journal’s site to an existing official page.
The group currently operates with three official e-board members and some additional members who are on track to fill additional positions, according to Parker.
The club relaunched in the fall of 2023. Dr. Katherine Tirabassi, faculty advisor to Bricowlage, brought the current e-board together last semester in hopes of reviving the journal, Parker said. Each of the three members was connected to Tirabassi through their work at the Center for Research and Writing as tutors.
“My long-term goal is … to get a large enough on-campus presence that there’s more support within the student body,” Parker said.
Artists are also welcome to submit to Bricowlage, Parker said. One of the other goals he listed for the journal was to increase the amount and variety of submissions, including encouraging painters, photographers and other visual artists to participate.
Parker expressed hope for interested students who can take over leadership of the journal when the current e-board members have graduated. He said he wanted to avoid the need for another relaunch of the club. One of the positions to be filled is head editor once Heyd graduates.
“We have two editors underneath me,” Heyd said. “Honestly, I see them as equals … Mostly we’re going through all of our submissions, making sure that the grammar is correct, contacting authors to see if certain things are like stylistic choices or not and then eventually we’ll probably be working on formatting them as well.”
The journal members’ first meeting of the semester took place Friday, Jan. 19. Writers gathered in the Center for Research and Writing in the Mason Library for announcements and a flash fiction activity.
Junior and Vice President Moses Fisher has created the flash fiction writing prompts for each meeting since the club relaunched. Fisher said the prompts were intended to challenge writers and give them a space to accomplish something creative.
“It’s really nice to have an outlet for your work that’s a lot more local too, so people can see and recognize it in the community,” Fisher said. “It’s nice to have a smaller, tight-knit community of writers.”
Bricowlage meetings are held every third Friday at 4 p.m. in the Center for Research and Writing.
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
