Paul Bixler Little Magazine, What Now?
"They include undergraduate literary magazines and periodicals devoted to arts other than writing, but the best examples seem to be the quarterly reviews, "not money-minded", but the "intelligent, dignified, critical representatives of an intelligent, dignified, critical minority...conscious of a serious responsibility which does not often permit them the freedom to experiment or to seek out unknown writers" (Bixler 148-149).
I felt like this section of the reading really caught my attention and made me think a little deeper about Toyon. Toyon is indeed a small literary magazine that is neither money grabbing or money searching. Its intention is to focus on talented, unknown writers and artists and to give them a chance to express themselves and to have a voice. Toyon is a place that values the importance of words, literature, community and open mindedness. This is something that I rarely see in big magazines as ideas and topics are limited or minimized.
"They include undergraduate literary magazines and periodicals devoted to arts other than writing, but the best examples seem to be the quarterly reviews, "not money-minded", but the "intelligent, dignified, critical representatives of an intelligent, dignified, critical minority...conscious of a serious responsibility which does not often permit them the freedom to experiment or to seek out unknown writers" (Bixler 148-149).
I felt like this section of the reading really caught my attention and made me think a little deeper about Toyon. Toyon is indeed a small literary magazine that is neither money grabbing or money searching. Its intention is to focus on talented, unknown writers and artists and to give them a chance to express themselves and to have a voice. Toyon is a place that values the importance of words, literature, community and open mindedness. This is something that I rarely see in big magazines as ideas and topics are limited or minimized.
Aaron Gilbreath, Publishing What We Are Trying to Write ("Paper Dreams" By Travis Kurowski)
When people perceive the hope of having their work published one day, they do not think of sending their stories to literary magazines; mainly this is because they are not aware of their existence or have been apprised that these small magazines are considered irrelevant if they want to make it big. Many future writers dream about hoping to have their work approved by big publishing companies such as HarperCollins and MacMillan Publishers to help them become the next J.K. Rowling or John Steinbeck. Another course issue that I heard from other writers is that they hope to publish their own stories but feel (and unfortunately know) that they will have to stick to writing careers that involves factual writing alone because creating a book can be time consuming and is not as valued as factual and rhetorical writing. There is Nothing wrong with factual writing as it is a primary tool we use to inform and communicate with one another; but we forget that facts can also be expressed through story writing, poetry and drawings. And that is where literary magazines come into the picture as they are an important artifact of our writing that welcomes every thought and emotion into each of its pages. It is a place where stories Do become noticed and appreciated, it is a place that asks the writer "What's on your mind?" instead of "This is what I have in mind and you are going to do it this way". For this year's Toyon, our main focus is going to be on Environmental Justice and with your mind and creativity, we encourage art, photography and writing talents to educate us on environmental concerns we should acknowledge and take action in. It will be both factual and alluring, educational and inspiring. As a literary magazine, we encourage you to be our community's educators, leaders, journalists, and philosophers.......but with splashes of color.
When people perceive the hope of having their work published one day, they do not think of sending their stories to literary magazines; mainly this is because they are not aware of their existence or have been apprised that these small magazines are considered irrelevant if they want to make it big. Many future writers dream about hoping to have their work approved by big publishing companies such as HarperCollins and MacMillan Publishers to help them become the next J.K. Rowling or John Steinbeck. Another course issue that I heard from other writers is that they hope to publish their own stories but feel (and unfortunately know) that they will have to stick to writing careers that involves factual writing alone because creating a book can be time consuming and is not as valued as factual and rhetorical writing. There is Nothing wrong with factual writing as it is a primary tool we use to inform and communicate with one another; but we forget that facts can also be expressed through story writing, poetry and drawings. And that is where literary magazines come into the picture as they are an important artifact of our writing that welcomes every thought and emotion into each of its pages. It is a place where stories Do become noticed and appreciated, it is a place that asks the writer "What's on your mind?" instead of "This is what I have in mind and you are going to do it this way". For this year's Toyon, our main focus is going to be on Environmental Justice and with your mind and creativity, we encourage art, photography and writing talents to educate us on environmental concerns we should acknowledge and take action in. It will be both factual and alluring, educational and inspiring. As a literary magazine, we encourage you to be our community's educators, leaders, journalists, and philosophers.......but with splashes of color.
And So It Begins!
September 14, 2016
The reality that I am part of something huge and amazing started to sink in once I saw people’s expressions when I said Toyon. A university that is known for its kind students and locals who give you a helping hand or a kind word, it wasn’t much of a surprise when a couple of HSU’s departments gave me permission to post fliers on their bulletins as well as download the fliers through their messages and updates. After posting Toyon’s hard copy fliers, I knew that I had to rely on today’s way of communication to give Toyon an extra boost of being noticed quickly and easily: technology. My biggest plan for this first Toyon assignment is to just spread the word about our literary magazines, whether it's through social media, school programs, gmail or clubs. I plan to first attract as many gifted artists and writers possible to submit their work. So far, everything has been turning out smoothly and I have currently been making future plans about where to submit Toyon for literary magazine awards. I am both excited and nervous because I want this to also turn out smoothly to make things less stressful for my staff.
September 14, 2016
The reality that I am part of something huge and amazing started to sink in once I saw people’s expressions when I said Toyon. A university that is known for its kind students and locals who give you a helping hand or a kind word, it wasn’t much of a surprise when a couple of HSU’s departments gave me permission to post fliers on their bulletins as well as download the fliers through their messages and updates. After posting Toyon’s hard copy fliers, I knew that I had to rely on today’s way of communication to give Toyon an extra boost of being noticed quickly and easily: technology. My biggest plan for this first Toyon assignment is to just spread the word about our literary magazines, whether it's through social media, school programs, gmail or clubs. I plan to first attract as many gifted artists and writers possible to submit their work. So far, everything has been turning out smoothly and I have currently been making future plans about where to submit Toyon for literary magazine awards. I am both excited and nervous because I want this to also turn out smoothly to make things less stressful for my staff.
Literary Magazines: What's So Special About Them?
September 19, 2016
"Simply put, the country had finally come to accept and identify its American authors, to recognize an American voice in letters, and to develop a taste for it. The short story came into its own as a "form", not simply as a tale that had been shortened for the magazine, but as an independent art form with its own internal rules and life" (Staley, Eric "Influence, Commerce, and the Little Magazine").
Throughout reading this essay in Travis Kurowski's Paper Planes, these two lines really caught my attention as it briefly stated the birth of the literary magazine and the introduction of noticing talented writers and their stories. What had caught my attention was Staley's definition of calling short stories independent and unique while Americans had developed a love interest in listening to voices through letters that expressed every feeling and thought of the writers in different genres. To me, the love for stories and literary magazines should be carried on throughout our history and should always remind the public why writing and languages are such important tools for communication and connection. On my visit to the Humboldt Room last Wednesday, I had the honor of looking through Toyon's past literary journals from the 1950s through 2016. I had picked a 1974 Toyon magazine and compared its stories, layout, and organization to 2008's. Before opening them, I was already walking away from the Toyon shelf, books in hand, thinking that the older vintage Toyon had much better stories, would be neatly organized, and had class and amazing stories that could never be outshown by today's stories and artists. I know it was wrong of me to possess this pessimistic and snobbish mentality and I corrected my attitude quickly once I opened the 1974 Toyon. This 1974 edition had its page numbers cut off halfway from the bottom, had only one photograph printed, had very limited genres and did not give credit to that year's Toyon team. Despite the participants stories, that year's literary magazine was very disorganized and I felt, as a reader, that Toyon was not given much love and respect that year. I moved on to the 2008 edition and it was completely opposite of it's vintage cousin. It was well organized, had a clean layout, gave credit to its team and contained a plethora of genres. And the stories were even More colorful and were deeper; they carried a deep, emotional level with the reader. I felt a ton of hard work and love with this edition and it gave me a realization that not only should literary magazines be flexible with their genres and must contain as many stories as possible but that the staff of Toyon should also be more wary by showing excellent care with creating the literary magazine. Keeping an orderly, clean literary magazine is not only attractive to the reader's eye, it also shows that the staff respects it's writers and artist's work and have promised to take care of them by displaying them in a beautiful book that invites many to come enjoy the beauty of literature and the human mind.
The First Steps as a Liaison
September 21, 2016
A rise of excitement lifted from my chest as I counted how many likes and views my Toyon post received on the Humboldt County Writer's Facebook page. So far, my journey of submitting both hard copy and online advertisements has been successful. As a former poet for Humboldt State's Latin@ paper, El Lenador, I have excellent connections with the staff and have messaged the editor and chief if her team could sponsor our literary magazine. I am currently waiting for a response and hope to hear from her soon. She also has a couple of staff members who work for The LumberJack so if El Lenador cannot successfully spread the message on time, I am hopeful that a couple of these staff members will carry out the message to our other media, though I know some of the other Toyon crew members are also reaching out to these newspapers. This week, I have been working on a cover sheet draft for Toyon's submission to plain china. plain china: Best Undergraduate Writing is a literary magazine award program that selects the best poetry and undergraduate prose. I will be reediting Toyon's cover and have it reviewed by the Toyon staff before I ship it to plain china with last year's literary magazine. I have to admit, for first experience as a liaison for a literary magazine, I feel kind of anxious as I hope to find more literary magazine award programs and hope everything runs smoothly. I have been trying to find groups of writers and artists outside of the campus who would like to be contacted or have their group posted. I believe I have found a friendly group of folks who enjoy getting together to have tea and write haikus. Lastly, but not least, I am really hoping we will have at least one submission for the Environmental Justice Writing genre. As an English major who is interested in starting her career path on Environmental Writing, I am hoping I will find stories that will both inspire and educate me more about environmental issues as I am still currently learning more about this subject.
September 21, 2016
A rise of excitement lifted from my chest as I counted how many likes and views my Toyon post received on the Humboldt County Writer's Facebook page. So far, my journey of submitting both hard copy and online advertisements has been successful. As a former poet for Humboldt State's Latin@ paper, El Lenador, I have excellent connections with the staff and have messaged the editor and chief if her team could sponsor our literary magazine. I am currently waiting for a response and hope to hear from her soon. She also has a couple of staff members who work for The LumberJack so if El Lenador cannot successfully spread the message on time, I am hopeful that a couple of these staff members will carry out the message to our other media, though I know some of the other Toyon crew members are also reaching out to these newspapers. This week, I have been working on a cover sheet draft for Toyon's submission to plain china. plain china: Best Undergraduate Writing is a literary magazine award program that selects the best poetry and undergraduate prose. I will be reediting Toyon's cover and have it reviewed by the Toyon staff before I ship it to plain china with last year's literary magazine. I have to admit, for first experience as a liaison for a literary magazine, I feel kind of anxious as I hope to find more literary magazine award programs and hope everything runs smoothly. I have been trying to find groups of writers and artists outside of the campus who would like to be contacted or have their group posted. I believe I have found a friendly group of folks who enjoy getting together to have tea and write haikus. Lastly, but not least, I am really hoping we will have at least one submission for the Environmental Justice Writing genre. As an English major who is interested in starting her career path on Environmental Writing, I am hoping I will find stories that will both inspire and educate me more about environmental issues as I am still currently learning more about this subject.
Taking a Better Look at the Facial Features of Toyon Literary Magazine
Flipping through the first few pages of a couple of older Toyon Literary Magazines, I observe the font of the title and the way the older generation of Toyon Staff members organized their names in the Table of Contents and Acknowledgements. I critiqued how long the covers of the magazines held my gaze, how these covers made me feel and if they urge my curiosity to open the magazine and start reading. Despite the staff's search to edit and approve stories we think are the most alluring to our genres and audience, I also believe that looks matter in Toyon's case. The past magazines I have looked at were from the 90s and contained some very dreamlike watercolor paintings that can make you feel creatively in touch with the earth and the human mind. Though clean cut and professional looking, I was not quite attracted to the 2014 edition yet I still looked forward to reading the stories it contains. I am quite happy that our 2015 a d 2016 editions contain art drawings as their front as it not only represents and honors the creativity of participants but also gives the literary magazine personality. I think it would be an extra bonus if we can try to give our newest edition some color in the front. I love that the editions I have read acknowledge the winners for awards such as the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest as Raymond Carver is a huge figure in Humboldt State University. I loved that the editions I have read gave credit to the Toyon Staff and their roles in they partook in order to work together to make the literary magazine happen. All I can say is Toyon should keep up the good work and to continue bringing the community together.
Spreading the Word
Last Tuesday, I tabled for Toyon on the quad for one hour and was able to attract the attention of a couple of writers and artists. A couple of students starting their first year at HSU were really excited to hear that the school had a literary magazine since they have dreamed of getting some of their work published and noticed. I was very appreciative of people who were not interested in submitting their work but were curious to know more about what Toyon is. After being informed about Toyon, a couple of these people have mentioned friends and roommates that they knew were interested in writing and would be interested in participating/submitting to the literary magazine. I am pretty grateful for these folks that came to ask because they will be our extra help to announcing Toyon's existence to future writers, artists, and staff members. As I sat there in between the new Autumn sunlight and the cool shade, I took a moment to meditate and appreciate the environment I was in. Humboldt is naturally a place of artistic creativity; to me, I do not know any other place in California that still encourages art in both its county and in its schools. Back at home and in many other places, mathematics and the sciences are the only subjects that are fed to us and are convinced as our primary relevant topics that will help get us all a career that will pay the bills. Though science and math have a great importance in our education whether we like them or not, I feel that society and educational facilities forget that the imagination is also important. Creativity is valuable. Language is sacred. Self expression is human. And I feel like Toyon will guide people that it is okay to express. It's okay to create to educate.... it is okay to just be human.
What is Toyon Looking For Exactly?
Toyon holds a great amount of respect for all participant's work. Each work is to be analyzed from start to finish with careful reading and we discuss each story with high regard. What we search for in these readings are stories and topics that contain eminence and have obviously have been written with care. We look for writings that leave a strong reaction or powerful message to us whether we agree or disagree with what the writer was talking about. The fact that a story can leave us with such feelings has a promising chance of becoming rewarded. I think one of the complexities editors need to account for is which story should be chosen for a certain reward and to respect other staff members opinions on which stories they favor. Editors will also have to be prepared for displeased participants who will feel cheated because their work was not awarded or chosen as reliable for a certain genre. All staff members understand that each person's mind is different and this can be recognized through their writing. This is how we get to somewhat know the person's mind and see what they think. However, we hope that effort along with creativity will be noticed in these stories because that is what we are striving for. We are striving for stories that will educate, leave a message, or just simply blow people's minds. Personally, I wonder if the Environmental Justice Writings will be mind blowing.
Getting Serious With Toyon
October 9, 2016
For my personal position at Toyon, I have shared the cover letter draft for plain china with the rest of the staff, however, we have become so booked with our submissions that I did not receive any feedback. I have sent the cover letter to the editor in chief through my HSU account so hopefully I will receive some quick feedback soon and I can finally mail it by this coming Monday. And then, I will anxiously wait to see if we get a response. I am still trying to familiarize myself with this site called Duotrope but I will be needing a little more guidance on how I can successfully understand and work with it. Other than these tasks, I have completed most of my mission for the Marketing and Promotions Team. This is great as I was able to advertise Toyon before the deadline and now I can just focus on updates that need to be added or edited and working to continue promoting Toyon's existence nationally through other literary magazines and other literary anthologies. I am not sure if I am just taking the physical features of literary magazines a little too seriously but I felt almost emotional when I observed other literary journals that have been recommended and awarded by plain china; myriads of these literary journals came from colleges all across the nation, most of them contained photographs or art as their cover. I find this moving as each literary journal seems to display a deep respect for their artists and writers and want them to be recognized as well as encouraged to continue building their creativity. I have to confess that I never heard of a literary magazine until I have heard about Toyon last year when I have transferred to Humboldt State University and that makes me wonder how many other people do not know about its existence and would like to know about it in order to have a head start on a writing career. Or at least would be interested in submitting work as a hobby and to just admire the beauty of art and writing. Discovering the existence of Toyon has been an awakening to me that not all forms of hardcopy journalism and writing is dead and that their are still people who encourage it and who also enjoy and understand the importance of language, art, and the imagination. And from what i have been learning about plain china, it is hoping to keep literature and art alive and develops relationships with other literary magazines that pass this torch to future generations of writers. That's why getting this cover letter mailed as soon as possible is important to me. It is not to just have HSU's Toyon noticed just for being a surviving literary magazine but to have plain china notice that we, too, believe that literature and art are a great importance to our human existence and connection.
Editorial Statement
October 10, 2016
We are living at a day and age where newspapers are starting to die off and social media news is favored and considered as the best reliable source of communication. We are at an era where cursive is no longer practiced in schools and art and storytelling is only taught and left behind in 5th grade, soon to be replaced by research projects and statements that mathematics and science are the primary subjects that will help guide young minds into good careers with a better understanding of the human mind. And at this present time, a myriad of people do not know what a literary magazine is but are familiar with magazines based primarily on celebrities and how to look like them.
As the times continue to change, we must never forget the value of arts and literature as they are a great value to understanding not only the human mind but to also understand the human soul. Art and literature penetrate into the eyes and ears of ones who search for it; then it spreads into the veins and rests in the heart and soul. As math and science are important factors to our knowledge, we must not rely on them entirely for human thriving and interaction. Too many believe that we only need these subjects to improve connection in humanity. As these two subjects can arouse the mind with wonder and spark new findings, they lack the skills to be able value human emotion and creative critical thinking.
Toyon's forthcoming issue will be introducing a plethora of critical creative writings to its readers through literary criticism, free writing and its main topic Environmental Justice Writing.
Revising My Work
I emailed the rough draft of the cover letter to my professor last weekend and was happy to receive her feedback. I was truly grateful that she was able to help me make a couple of sentences to the ending of the letter as finding a way to close the letter was my biggest challenge. in a few parts of the body of the letter, their were a few small changes that needed to be made but my professor approved of the rest of the work. She did not edit the way I laid out and set up the cover letter which was a relief to me as it meant that I was at least on the right track with this section of professionalism. I was informed in her email that once I have edited these changes that she has made, I can copy and paste the text into a copy the file of the Word doc version of the letterhead, which is located in our Toyon's Shared Drive. We now have an official letterhead so if I place this in this letter, it will look more alluring and professional. I cannot wait to start printing the official cover letter and inserting it into an envelope with last year's literary magazine. Our next destination will be plain china and by then, we will wait to hear from them. I hope the letter will be in good care as we have been having quite a few violent rainstorms this weekend and will be continuing to have them until Tuesday. And I hope plain china will take some of their time to learn about us and will become interested in wanting to see our upcoming issue. I'm sure they will thoguh as they have current relationships with other university literary magazines.
Making a Skeleton Out of Future Ideas
The cover letter's draft has finally been printed and is now waiting to travel onward in the English Department's office; I just need to get last year's issue and have the envelope properly addressed and stamped an it will be on its way. In the meantime, I have been researching some ideas for Toyon's future about how we can improve our marketing and how we can quickly and easily search for our next, promising future writers and artists.
I will be visiting HSU Writing Center this week to ask them to be my compass on where and how I can market Toyon for next years's recruits as well as future generations after them. In the meantime, I think it would be interesting to track down writing clubs in Arcata and inform them more about the existence of the literary magazine. I met one member of the Poetry of the Plaza club which started 40 years ago and gets together at Jacoby's Storehouse above the Plaza Grill. A current plan I have for them is to meet with their coordinator and ask if there can be a fun, creative way Toyon could briefly advertise itself during one of their sessions. If the advertising is considered bothersome, perhaps Toyon could get creative and advertise itself through poetry, expressing why it is significant and how it values literature just as much as any writing organization and club. Another program I am currently researching online is "Writers of Color" which highly relates to a myriad of topics that have been discussed in many English classes this past year. Perhaps this could be Toyon's next issue?? Perhaps Toyon could start developing relationships with literary organizations that focus on saving literature from nonwhites from being ignored and pushed away. With the resources we have on campus, I think this could help us build a stronger relationship with El Lenador and can help El Lenador become appreciated more and respected from the community despite their hard work and talent being long overdue of appreciation it deserves.
Literary Journal Covers
October 26th, 2016
Having an alluring and clean cut cover gives a literary journal a professional look that will make it want to be readable. With a great amount of detail that is also easy on the easy, the cover should always relate to what the book is going to be about. A myriad of literary magazines use artwork and photography from submissions as their cover photos. This helps define what a reader should expect from the book, the purpose of the the book and the book's respect for the hard work and effort its writers and artists made for it to become and continue to be what it is and what it strives to be. When trying to find an acceptable font size, "Comic Sans" and "Papyrus" are highly discouraged unless the author is publishing a comedy genre. Also, it is encouraged that writers use a thumbnail image of the cover to see if it is still readable as well as eye catching. Perfect examples of attractive, readable covers that are excellent examples would be the "Oakland Review's" literary journals. The "Oakland Review" contains a glorious selection of books with drawings, readable font and photographs as their covers; all of them relate to their purpose as a literary magazine and the stories and art that are contained inside of them.
Research Project for Toyon
As a member of the marketing team for Toyon, my job is to reach out to many writers and artists as possible while helping Toyon become recognized by other places and people that did not know that it existed. So far from what I have learned about advertising Toyon is that I am its voice that will help inspire people who carry different views and uses of expressing themselves through art and literature. Toyon has been the stepping stone, the therapist, the teacher, and the philosopher of many locals, students, and outside artists who seek to share their work to the world. And it is my job to help Toyon's existence become noticed to both new students and locations that probably have never heard of it before but would appreciate its help and creativity.
Witnessing Toyon's process of demanding and receiving Environmental Justice writings as its main topic for this year's issue, this gave me an idea about how we can market Toyon to other literary organizations who discuss political, environmental, and social justice issues. I feel that Toyon could help become a listener, a speaker and a home for organizations such as "Writers of Color", "Canto Mundo" and "Nuyorican Cafe". From what I have known and noticed for a long time, and from what these organizations discuss is that a plethora of nonwhite writers and artists' work usually go unnoticed and that very few of them are appreciated and respected and are only recognized as "slave stories". This is a constant topic that is talked about in many institutions , including schools such as Humboldt State University, however, people just discuss the issue and continue relying and applauding white European literature as superior and the birth father of English and American literature. I think this topic could be an interesting topic for next year's issue.
Update on Research Project
Currently, I have just been searching local literary organizations and bookstores that could help advertise and participate with Toyon in the future. My first spot I have gone to to start my research was the Northtown Bookstore down at the Arcata Plaza. I got to talk to the owner of the store and asked them questions such as how often do they have local writers visit and have book meetings at their store and where I can locate their work in the store. While directed to a table that only holds books from local writers, I scanned through some of the books and found a ton of nonfiction and short stories. Many of these writers have researched and focused primarily on certain topics such as conifer plant species, bird species in NorthWest California and Californian Indian Languages. Following through this year's topic Environmental Justice Writing, I feel like these writers could be very helpful to add a few pieces of their work and studies to this category as we only had a few writings submitted to us this year. I feel that adding Environmental Justice Writing to Toyon is an excellent idea as it benefits our focus to continue connecting and educating our readers through literature and I would love to keep this genre alive in future Toyon Literary magazines.
As a Marketing team member, I feel that we should reduce boundaries and receive acceptance to advertising hardcopies of Toyon fliers outside of the university campus and into local towns and online sites from other literature organizations. The owner of Northtown Bookstore said he had heard of Toyon and had seen the fliers long ago but eventually they stopped appearing and Toyon became out of sight, out of mind. I think that we should continue advertising Toyon in town with hard copy and to keep the fliers colorful and easy to read as it will attract attention and stick out like a sore thumb. The owner also directed me to another shelf that held literary magazines and I looked at a couple such as "The First Line" and "Cometbus". It'd be a good idea to introduce these literary magazines to people and students who are interested in sharing their writings to spread their work to other literary magazines. This weekend, I will be researching more on literary sites such as Writers of Color and learn more about improving online advertising.
Printing and Production Decisions Toyon Will have to Contemplate On
"War isn't everything, but it changes everything: how we write, what we read, how we think we feel about what we see or 'know'" -Kyle Schlesinger (The Letterpress in The Mimeo Revolution).
Reading this passage in Travis Kurowski's "Paper Dreams" made me reflect on the current political, environmental and social issues today that evolve our literature and our ways of thinking. And running alongside the many changes that happen when history is talking about itself, our technology advances, giving us access to ways in which we can express our thoughts and feelings about what is happening in the nation or with the world. As of today with subjects such as Black Lives Matter and the presidential campaign that has stirred the racism that obviously never left our society, social media and the internet itself has given many readers and writers access to comment their thoughts and feelings about the world by commenting through pictures, videos, and creating blogs. With the internet being the most valued and reliablesource of human communication and literature while books, newspapers and magazines are on the decline, Toyon is at stake at relying on people seek its existence as it continues to be a traditional physical hardcopy magazine. Despite Toyon's great achievements of accepting and following works and thoughts of the modern mind and introducing Environmental Justice Writing, people that are interested in reading and partaking in literary topics usually are not aware of its existence unless told by the staff. Even though Toyon has managed to have its own site where people can submit their work, a majority of today's literary language and knowledge is dependent on places such as Facebook and Tumblr which can be good and bad as it can informa many on topics that need to be acknowledged but at the same time can send false information and miscommunication as people want information quickly and thorough analysis from journalism and reader tends to slip away quite often. Will Toyon eventually have to eventually transform into the future in order to continue its mission as a literature therapist and career stepping stone or will it stably thrive in a hard copy and just be known as 'hip' because it stays true to its traditional form that is rapidly dying out around it?
And have fun!
Dear Writer,
"Nothing makes you feel like a 'real writer' like sending out that first piece to a journal in hopes of publication. Even if you figure that in return you'll only receive a slip of paper rejecting it-you're still on your way. But how does all this work?..." -Katie Chase "Submitting to Literary Magazines".
Dear Writer,
I would like to give you a little advice about submitting your work to literary magazines and what goes on on the receiving end of this process. Firstly, to you writer, I encourage you to pick up and study the book "Paper Dreams" by Travis Kurowski and flip to page 419-425. Here you will find successful (and hopefully stress relieving) tips on how to submit your work successfully and how to professionally use your work to draw the attention of editors. To quickly summarize this section on "Paper Dreams", you need to:
1.) Send your best, reviewed work
2.) Research your magazines before you submit your work in case certain magazines only follow certain genres of writing
3.) Thoroughly follow directions if publications suggest you submit your work online and always use double space (except in poems), standard font, numbered pages, stapled or paper clipped pages, and a heading of your name and contact information
4.) Keep cover letters simple; leave introductions Very brief and be polite
5.) Do Not submit your work simultaneously to other literary magazines at the same time.
And last but not least, I will help inform and guide you on what you should be aware of if you would like to submit some of your work to Toyon and other magazines. While editing some of this year's pieces for Toyon, I have realized that a few writers have sent a mixture of work that they were proud of (which were usually the first two or three pieces) along with other pieces that did not stand with the strength and passion that was put in their other first pieces. Many of these writers Please make sure that your work is not only revised but that it is a piece that you are proud of and would most likely want to share to the public. Toyon and I would Love to see the pieces that you are most proud of and want you to know that this is something you should enjoy doing and to not mistake it as an out of school homework assignment. We want to feel what you are feeling in work, along with how you think and what you want to say. And on a last note, don't forget to submit your pieces with a title!
Best of luck to you! And have fun!
Dear Writer,
"Nothing makes you feel like a 'real writer' like sending out that first piece to a journal in hopes of publication. Even if you figure that in return you'll only receive a slip of paper rejecting it-you're still on your way. But how does all this work?..." -Katie Chase "Submitting to Literary Magazines".
Dear Writer,
I would like to give you a little advice about submitting your work to literary magazines and what goes on on the receiving end of this process. Firstly, to you writer, I encourage you to pick up and study the book "Paper Dreams" by Travis Kurowski and flip to page 419-425. Here you will find successful (and hopefully stress relieving) tips on how to submit your work successfully and how to professionally use your work to draw the attention of editors. To quickly summarize this section on "Paper Dreams", you need to:
1.) Send your best, reviewed work
2.) Research your magazines before you submit your work in case certain magazines only follow certain genres of writing
3.) Thoroughly follow directions if publications suggest you submit your work online and always use double space (except in poems), standard font, numbered pages, stapled or paper clipped pages, and a heading of your name and contact information
4.) Keep cover letters simple; leave introductions Very brief and be polite
5.) Do Not submit your work simultaneously to other literary magazines at the same time.
And last but not least, I will help inform and guide you on what you should be aware of if you would like to submit some of your work to Toyon and other magazines. While editing some of this year's pieces for Toyon, I have realized that a few writers have sent a mixture of work that they were proud of (which were usually the first two or three pieces) along with other pieces that did not stand with the strength and passion that was put in their other first pieces. Many of these writers Please make sure that your work is not only revised but that it is a piece that you are proud of and would most likely want to share to the public. Toyon and I would Love to see the pieces that you are most proud of and want you to know that this is something you should enjoy doing and to not mistake it as an out of school homework assignment. We want to feel what you are feeling in work, along with how you think and what you want to say. And on a last note, don't forget to submit your pieces with a title!
Best of luck to you! And have fun!
The Importance of Editing in the Marketing Team
"Editing, like writing, is fundamentally about composing a world. The writers one reads inhabit one's life, haunt one's imagination, daily walks, conversations with friends, dreams. They give one coverage in the world, a sense of place, a shared tradition."
-Peter Gizzi "On the Conjunction of Editing and Composition"
From what i have understood from this essay by Gizzi, editing plays a huge role on organizaed and collective thinking. As an editor for Toyon's "Poetry Section", I have found that editing has helped guide me into careful observation of poetry such as carefully seeing if the poem has been written with great care and passion or if it has a title. With editing, I have found that giving a poem a title makes it more memorable and a body to its personality. What is interesting with poetry is that it can intentionally challenge things tht we would usually edit such as grammar and spelling because it would usually play with words or would purposely challenge our brains that a misspelled word is correct because it matched the rhytm or sound of another word or story so that it exists as correct in its own world. So there was not too much checking with grammar and speling in this section. I might continue in the marketing section of writing as a future career and I believe editing will help me greatly with choosing careful wording, grammar and spelling in the advertisements I make. With careful editing, future advertisements I will be making will have clean, professional writing with an organized layout. Not only will this look professional but will also attract readers as many mislables and errors can make a reader lose interest and would not give the whole organization any respect, especially if it promotes literature.
Toyon Research Project
How to Market a Literary Magazine
I hope that this research project will become a helpful handbook for future marketing staff members of Toyon. My goal is to help the marketing understand different forms of marketing and where they can locate writers and artists in the local Humboldt area. I also hope that the future marketing team could sponsor and encourage more Environmental Justice Writers and to continue this genre throughout the rest of the Toyon generation.
prezi.com/4p9lpexa9qsj/copy-of-ways-to-market-a-literary-magazine/
What I Imagine for the Future of Toyon
As a Marketing Team member, I imagine and hope that Toyon's existence will be well known to many people outside of Humboldt County. I imagine Toyon creating new relationships with other literary anthologies and organizations that share people's stories to the public. As for the generations of talented and hard working writers who have submitted their work and kept Toyon alive, I hope they continue to share their writings in many places and to find new discoveries of what they want to do in their future; they are a very promising group of people. I do not really have any recommendations for Toyon except that they should try, if they can, to start printing the pictures in color and to help the photos stand out more and to have readers want to stop and take time to observe the images closely instead of straining their eyes to see what the images are and flipping past them due to frustration. We should definitely advertise the new Toyon release on Facebook and Instagram as these are sites that people enjoy going to and visit first; they check these sites before their own Humboldt Gmail.
I look forward to not only the Spring Semester but to seeing Toyon thrive and advance in the future! I am already excited to know that future members of the staff will end their internship with great pride on their achievements and a better understanding on a career in editing.
As a Marketing Team member, I imagine and hope that Toyon's existence will be well known to many people outside of Humboldt County. I imagine Toyon creating new relationships with other literary anthologies and organizations that share people's stories to the public. As for the generations of talented and hard working writers who have submitted their work and kept Toyon alive, I hope they continue to share their writings in many places and to find new discoveries of what they want to do in their future; they are a very promising group of people. I do not really have any recommendations for Toyon except that they should try, if they can, to start printing the pictures in color and to help the photos stand out more and to have readers want to stop and take time to observe the images closely instead of straining their eyes to see what the images are and flipping past them due to frustration. We should definitely advertise the new Toyon release on Facebook and Instagram as these are sites that people enjoy going to and visit first; they check these sites before their own Humboldt Gmail.
I look forward to not only the Spring Semester but to seeing Toyon thrive and advance in the future! I am already excited to know that future members of the staff will end their internship with great pride on their achievements and a better understanding on a career in editing.
The Adventure Continues but in Another Chapter...
When I first made my blog, I started off unsure about what I wanted to do with it after I was done with Toyon. It definitely invaded my comfort zone as I am not used to sharing my personal life to the public. Even through social media such as Facebook, I was never comfortable about sharing my personal life and achievements and prefer just to snoop and 'like' everybody else's posts. But I am glad that I have been introduced to blog creating and I learned to have fun with it and enjoyed it even more as I felt kind of like a tour guide for Toyon and got to share my knowledge about working as an editor. I felt that this experience helped develop my computer and internet skills and I am truly grateful that I was given the chance to practivce them as I was originally very poor at understanding the computer, even sometimes struggling with the basics.
I not only learned computer skills, magazine publishing and editing this semester in the Fall of 2016, I also learned to create a website in my Environmental Writing class. From this class, I have discovered what I want to do with my career in writing; I want to be an Environmental Justice Writer. From here on, I will continue to use my blog to continue sharing my story as a writer and as someone who enjoys learning as much as enlightening.
Thank you for joining me on my adventure with Toyon. And now on to the next adventure...
See you there!