Reflecting on my high school days, I recall an annual magazine called Galleries that I took part in. Each year, my school released this magazine that contained student-written poetry as well as artwork. I enjoyed writing poetry and submitting it to the magazine, having students and teachers read it when the magazine was published and comment on it. Of course, their interpretation of what I had written didn’t always match what I intended when I wrote it, but that’s what art is all about. I’m also not going to say that my poetry is anything stellar, because it definitely isn’t. Poetry and free-writing are simply ways for me to express myself, and I feel as if those feelings are not fully expressed unless they have been published somehow.
As far as I know, SUNY Oswego doesn’t have such a club or publication, and I think that it would be very beneficial, or at least creatively stimulating, to the campus’s environment if it did. Even if it wasn’t a separate publication (even though I believe that would be the best route to take) but instead published as a section in the Oswegonian, at least students have a way for their work to be published. I also think that it would be a good idea, because I think that for some students, the thought of having their work published would encourage them to write outside of the classroom. As someone who writes as often as he can, I know that, for me, writing independently, especially creative writing, helps me relax, and again, also helps me express myself in a way that I wouldn’t know how otherwise.
SUNY Oswego really should have this available to students, and it doesn’t need to be exclusive to poetry. All forms of creative writing, such as short stories, could be published as well, and this goes back to what I said earlier about students being encouraged to write outside of the classroom, because it works both ways. If students are encouraged to write, then other students are encouraged to read, and the more students who are reading, the higher the incentive there is for writers to keep writing. I wouldn’t know how to go about initiating such a club myself, but I definitely think it can be done with a group of students who also think it would be a good idea.
I agree that it’s be a good idea. WE too had something like this in my high school. I didn’t contribute often, but I did take a creative writing class and the teacher made a book of some of our poems for all of us to keep and we had to submit one to this magazine as well. I still have the book and still look through it and I LOVED seeing my poetry published and critiqued. I agree that a poetry club would be beneficial to Oswego and it’s communnity.
SUNY Oswego does have a literary magazine — an excellent one. It’s called the Great Lakes Review, and publishes student poetry, fiction, nonfiction, artwork, and more. You can contact them at GLR@Oswego.edu.
Really? I was not aware of this! I’ll have to contact them! I guess it’s a good thing that I specified that we didn’t have one “as far as I know.”
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