By: Samantha Silva, BU English Major
For those who are unfamiliar with the Belmont Literary Journal, it strives to publish current Belmont students’ work ranging from fiction and poetry to art. The literary journal is not just for English majors but is open to all students that want to share their work with others. It is a great way to submit stories, poems, and artwork.
For English majors, there is a great deal of benefit to submitting your work to the journal. Since the submission deadline is usually in February, you can submit work that you aren’t so sure of publishing or entering into scholarships. It is a great way to share and hear feedback from as well as just seeing your work on a platform. It is also a time to try something you weren’t sure you would be good at.
It is also beneficial to work on the Belmont Literary Journal. To join the literary journal, a student must sign up for ENW 3680, Literary Editing in Context, typically offered during the spring semester. From the beginning of the course, you learn about how to create a site from looking at other literary sites to looking at the past literary journals. You pick which part you will play within website design and start sending out information about submissions and getting started on the make-up of the journal. Now, there is more to this class than just creating the site. Dr. McDowell provides really great readings that touch on constructing a literary journal. This is a great course for those that are looking into making their own website or wanting to do journalism as a profession. It is also a great way to talk to some amazing students and build something from the ground up.
I was a part of the Belmont Literary Journal my sophomore year, 2021. I would recommend any major to join this course as I learned some really great skills and met some amazing people. Of course, this was during the time when Covid-19 was sweeping our community, so it was hard to see these faces over the screen and try to manage building something amazing during such a dark time. However, this is a great community that supported everyone through this hard time, and we produced something beautiful in the end. I was in the design team and loved creating the aesthetic that the journal would have. It was an honor to read other students’ work and look through the amazing art they submitted. For those who want to create something amazing while learning some life-long skills, this would be the course for you!
Belmont English 