By Sophie Hobbs
Bluffton students participate in a wide range of extracurricular activities. Some are exclusive to one’s major, such as exercise science club or social work club. However, there are other groups that are non-major specific and have a large influence on Bluffton’s community.
One of these influential groups is the team of students and advisers that work to put together the Shalith.
The Shalith is a literary magazine that accepts submissions from students in the form of poems, research essays, short stories, art submissions, fiction and nonfiction pieces. This experience serves as a spring semester project that students can sign up to participate in while registering for classes. Students who become part of the program receive .50 credit hours. Students also have the option to take part in the editing process of the Shalith without receiving credit if their schedule is full.
This year, the Shalith will accept submissions until March 17.
“We’ll probably accept submissions until about week after the deadline because of the volume of submissions that we’re looking for,” said Megan Good, a student staff member for the Shalith.
“The Shalith is way for students to share what they’ve been working on,” says Good.
Good, a junior english and writing major, is working on her second year as a member of the Shalith organization group. Good is one of few students who is a part of the group this year.
The faculty advisors for the Shalith are Susan Carpenter and Jeff Gundy, both English faculty members.
“The biggest goal is to get it done on time for students to be able to read, the main goal is to promote student’s work… that they want to share with other students,” said Good.
Everyone who has work published in the Shalith gets a copy, and typically save them for their resumes and portfolios to show potential employers.
Students who have had things published in the Shalith are still allowed to have the same pieces submitted in other magazines, but pieces that have been submitted to other magazines first must have permission to submit them to the Shalith.
Although few students have heard of the Shalith, the publication is steadily gaining popularity as students continue to bring new submissions to the magazine each year. There is also typically an online version of the Shalith that accepts longer pieces such as full length stories and longer research papers.
The Shalith will be available in the bookstore at the end of the spring semester.
