By Darian Rahnis, Staff Writer
The Sanctuary Magazine held a reception in Fisher Hall, to increase awareness about the magazine and educate students on its changing content, on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
The Sanctuary Magazine is a literary magazine at Susquehanna open to all students. Because it is published online, students can submit pieces that are written, spoken or sung, making it a unique magazine.
Sarah French, editor-in-chief of the magazine, explained that they held the reception because many students do not know about The Sanctuary Magazine.
“Sometimes we are seen as a lesser magazine because we focus on genre and speculative fiction, and sometimes people mistake us for Gay Straight Alliance’s Haven or don’t know we exist at all,” French said.
This is not the only reason The Sanctuary Magazine had a reception for students. According to French, the magazine is changing, and they want people to be aware of this.
Because The Sanctuary Magazine has supported genre fiction and pieces written purely for fun over the years, there is a stigma surrounding the magazine, French said.
French believes that many students do not believe the magazine is worth writing for because it is not what French describes as, “high brow literary fiction.”
French explained that the magazine has accepted fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenplays, photographs, short films and music scores in the past.
Traditionally, The Sanctuary Magazine has been a place of safety for genre fiction. Now, they want to be taken seriously as a literary magazine that still fosters alternative and unconventional thoughts, French said.
In French’s opinion, the reception accomplished this. Thirty-two people, including the magazine staff, attended the reception.
Junior Editor of the magazine Richard Berwind said, “We were able to show our skills as a magazine, rebrand ourselves, and get so many people hyped for our next issue, which comes out in the spring.”
At the reception, there was a short presentation about the magazine for those unfamiliar with it. This included biographies of the magazine staff, submission guidelines and descriptions of upcoming events, French said.
According to French, sophomore Paige Drews shared her work, The Ravin’, which is a rap based off Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven. Drews’ rap can be found on Sanctuary Magazine’s website.
The magazine staff provided food and a space for attendees to mingle and read the magazine after the presentation was over, French said.
After successfully introducing the magazine in a new light, many students wanted to express why they are involved with The Sanctuary Magazine.
Sarah Adams, the Web and Design Editor, explained, “I like that our magazine challenges people to create quality genre works. It’s hard to write good genre stuff, and I think that the presence of our magazine encourages people to take their artistry to the next level.”
Berwind added, “I break the rules of poetry, and I play around with the forms of nonfictions. It is so sad to see that this oddness, this breaking, this shaping of writing is so suppressed on campus; I want to help fix that.”
Anyone else interested in shaping writing can contact the The Sanctuary Magazine staff via email at submissions.sanctuary@gmail.com or visit their website, sanctuarysumagazine.weebly.com.