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Upper Mississippi Harvest BBQs for survival
The oily aroma of charcoal saturated with lighter fluid is ordinarily associated with a summer barbecue. But when Jill Richter and Tim McConnell strike up the grill Thursday morning on the Atwood mall, students will smell a last-ditch attempt to save SCSU's literary magazine, the Upper Mississippi Harvest.
The shiny blue or sometimes black books that students may have noticed scattered on tables in Riverview or sitting in neat stacks in the admissions office may be the last of their kind. Harvest editors Richter and McConnell are struggling to make sure that isn't the case.
"Basically what happened is the previous editors didn't submit paperwork on time, so now the cost of the Harvest will come out of the editors' pockets because we have no budget," Richter said.
By the time former editors realized their oversight, money the Harvest may have used was already reallocated by student government. Fortunately, the finance committee was sympathetic to the publication's plight, and members said some money is available and it would be willing to match whatever Richter and McConnell raise, up to $1200.
According to Bill Meissner, who began advising the Harvest in the '80s, a literary magazine has been on campus in some form since the '60s, and it is a significant part of university life. I think it is very important to have a vehicle for students to express their writing, photography and artwork," Meissner said. "I am thrilled the new editors are interested in raising money."
Roadblocks
When Richter and McConnell realized they would need to raise money to produce the magazine, they hosted a fundraiser brainstorming session.
"We had a lot of ideas but we decided that with our resources, the best bet would be a pub crawl," McConnell said. "Jill found inexpensive ways to get T-shirts and cups; she called up bars and pretty much set everything up." But when they took the idea to UPB they were not approved.
Forced to regroup, Richter and McConnell had another brainstorming session. Because the Harvest isn't a club in the traditional sense- editors and judges are usually just involved for production and staff changes every year-finding a fundraising event that didn't require a large number of volunteers was a challenge.
"We were looking for fundraising opportunities a lot of people would enjoy but didn't require a lot of people to do. So we decided that we would sell brats on the Atwood Mall," Richter said.
"It is fool-proof," McConnell added. Richter and McConnell also plan on fundraising by cleaning up the National Hockey Center after a hockey game.
In the public's eye
The next step for the fundraising duo is publicizing their events. According to McConnell, the publicity is much needed. "We were at Main Street this year for the first time in a long time," McConnell said. "We were really surprised how many people didn't know about the Harvest and thought it was really cool that a campus magazine exists. We are going to try to make sure more people outside Riverview know about it."
Although some SCSU students may not have been aware of the Harvest, surprisingly, many prospective students are.
"The admissions office uses the Harvest for recruiting," Meissner said. "It's great because it shows the best work of our students."
Richter, who has had her poetry published in the Minnesota River Review as well as previous editions of the Harvest, said she knows the significance of being published and encourages students to get involved with their on-campus literary magazine.
"Publications like the Harvest or the Minnesota River Review are a good, casual place for beginning writers to publish," Richter said.
"There is a comfortable audience of students rather than a big publishing house. For anyone who wants to be a writer, small publications are the first step in their career. Agents generally don't even want to take your manuscripts unless you have previous experience."
McConnell said an added bonus for student writers is that competition is not as fierce.
"Because you are just competing against other students, you have a better chance of getting published."
A new format
Last year the Harvest editors received over 200 submissions of everything from art and poetry to short fiction and photography. Judges sifted through these submissions to find pieces good enough to fill the 60-page magazine that dedicates about 10 pages to art and photos, and the rest to poetry and fiction.
New to the Harvest this year is a category for comics.
Currently Richter and McConnell are recruiting student volunteers to judge and submit pieces for the magazine. There is no formal criteria to be a judge and the submission deadline is Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. in Riverview 114.
"If you submit and you get in you have bragging rights," McConnell said. "And judging is more like a party at the editor's house."
But before the party can start, the Harvest staff needs the small contribution of each student to keep the magazine alive, a donation measured by brats and buns.
"We think this project is valuable," McConnell said. "There are a lot of questionable activities that go on that you may wonder if they really belong on a college campus. But the Harvest is a legitimate, academic activity that belongs on campus. If it doesn't belong here, where does it belong?"
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