By Caroline Boden
Feelings, memories and stories have been spread across 120 pages and are about to be shared worldwide.
The team for Glass Mountain, the literary journal at the University of Houston, celebrated the completion of their twenty-third edition Tuesday.
Beginning in 2006, the journal focuses on offering emerging writers a unique national platform for publication. Printed biannually, Glass Mountain consists of submissions ranging from poetry to prose pieces, such as short stories or nonfiction work, to art, interviews, reviews and literary essays.
“Glass Mountain is unique in that we are entirely undergraduate run,” said Editor-in-Chief Melinda Mayden, 21. “Undergraduates are the ones who choose what pieces get published. We choose the layout. We host all of our own events. We publish our online magazine, which comes out twice a semester, and we also run the Boldface Conference for emerging writers.”
This semester’s edition was started in the beginning of August with the student editors and staff outlining what to expect in the months ahead.
“Throughout our staff we have meetings to narrow down pieces we want and then we go into production at the end of our submissions deadline, and that’s when we start making final decisions and putting the whole magazine together,” Mayden said.
The Glass Mountain team was faced with some struggles, as they were equipped with an entirely new staff.
“Almost the entire upper editor staff is brand new this year,” said William Faour, Managing Editor. “So we all had to learn on our feet and figure out how to get from walking into our first meeting with little knowledge on the process and most of us not even knowing each other to actual publication.”
Although the publication has been around for nearly 14 years, Glass Mountain flies under the radar to many students on campus.
“It’s sometimes difficult for us to reach, when it comes to events, outside of the English Department,” Mayden said. “Not a lot of people at UH even know we exist. A big goal of mine as editor this year has been to expand our reach outside of the English Department.”
The book is broken up into sections designated by category, however a common theme seemed to be displayed amongst all pieces of work from varying authors, poets and artists.
“This edition is special because we have a lot of pieces focused on identity in a lot of different ways,” said Emma Allbright, Prose Editor.
Every edition over the years follows a unique theme that is a reflection of the editors. This year, the staff says it’s no different.
“This edition deals with a lot of struggles that people have faced throughout life, along with a concern on body image and other aspects pertaining to the self,” Faour said. “What makes this so special to me is that we may not have written the pieces in it, but they all resonated strongly enough for us to decide yes, that’s what I think we need.”
After five months of hard work, long nights and excessive amounts of red ink, the team is overjoyed to have finished this literary journal.
“We did the damn thing,” Mayden said. “That was probably one of the proudest moments of my life when I actually got to hold the book in my hand. It’s just really unique to see something you’ve put so much effort and work into be a physical thing that people can hold and people can enjoy. I am so pleased.”