Student Publications

Unique Opportunity

Bemidji State's English Department is probably the only one in the United States that publishes four literary anthologies. BA, BFA and BS majors, and students in related majors, such as Mass Communication, serve on the editorial boards. They learn literary publishing from beginning to end.

Bemidji State students in any major may also submit work to three of the publications, all but New Voices.

For information on serving on an editorial board or submitting work for publication, visit each publication's web site.

• New Voices: Poetry & Prose by Minnesota High School Students
• Dust & Fire: Writing & Art by Women
• Fire Ring Voices: Writing & Art by Men
• Rivers Meeting: Writing & Art by Bemidji State Students

New Voices and Dust & Fire are edited in a class, Internship in Literary Publishing. Fire Ring Voices and Rivers Meeting are edited by student clubs.

Why serve on an editorial board?

Most writers are also readers - they read for the love it, and to feed their writing.  When they serve on an editorial board for a literary anthology, they learn another way to read: they learn to read for the sake of the work itself.  Their response to a piece might start with "I like this" or "I don't care for this," but in the end they also have to ask "is this right for the publication even if I don't care much for it," or "is it not right, even though I love it."  An interesting thing happens as an editorial board works through submissions: the publication, whether a magazine or an anthology, becomes a work of art in itself.  Members of the editorial board learn how to sense that, how to honor it, how to bring the publication to its highest point of completion.  It is an act of work and an act of love, and it comes with all of the troubles and satisfactions that those acts bring to us in our lives outside the page.