Josh Falcone – General Assignment Reporter –
Last Friday, the Southern literary magazine, Folio, held their final reading of the semester in the student center fireplace lounge. This month’s reading included poetry by Michael Gavin and Carissa Duhamel, as well as food, prizes and an open mic. Folio editor Joseph McCarthy said that this semester’s Folio readings have been terrific and a lot of fun.
“The readings have been great,” McCarthy said,
According to McCarthy, the amount of people taking advantage of the open mic portion of the readings has been astounding.
“A lot more people have read pieces at the open mics this semester,” he said.
Folio Fiction Editor, Luke Hunter read an original piece at the group’s event.
Folio, the magazine and the readings, are for Southern undergraduates who would like to submit their original work in fiction writing, poetry, memoir writing, one-act plays, and artwork, McCarthy said.
The original submitted writings are viewed anonymously by an editorial staff consisting of six editors. The works deemed the finest is then chosen for monthly readings, and for possible inclusion in the annual Folio magazine, McCarthy said.
The works for the Folio literary magazine are accumulated from the submissions the editors receive during the fall semester, then the magazine is composed and released during the spring semester, McCarthy said.
The Folio magazine has a long, rich tradition at Southern. The student literary magazine was originally published in 1948 as the TC Review. The magazine continued to evolve and in 1970 was renamed Folio and became the yearly magazine it is today.
McCarthy said that the Folio editors actively go out and look for potential Folio submissions.
“We go out and search for submissions,” McCarthy said. “We visit creative writing classes, and advise students to submit their work.”
McCarthy said that the editors get submissions from a variety of people, which he stated is “really awesome,” and that it is not hard to get submissions from the various creative writing classes here at Southern.
“People who write creatively are very passionate about it,” he said.
McCarthy said that at each of the Folio readings this past semester, the group of editors offered all those in attendance various free food. In addition, all Southern students were encouraged to come out to the readings and share their personal works during the open mic portion of the events. McCarthy said that during the monthly readings, the group raffled off prizes to all the students present.
“I’ll go out to Barnes & Noble,” McCarthy said, “and buy a few books to give out to the students that come out to celebrate the creativity of the Southern student community.”
Last week, some of the work of George Saunders, Stephen Dunn, and Michael Chabon were raffled off during the Folio reading.
One of the poets selected to read his work at this month’s reading was Michael Gavin. Gavin said that he is fairly new to writing poetry.
“I really only started writing poetry in the fall of 2011,” Gavin said.
Gavin said that McCarthy asked him to do this latest Folio reading, and he was absolutely thrilled about it.
“I had submitted to last year’s Folio,” Gavin said, “and received second place for one of my poems.”
The deadline for Folio submissions is fast approaching. Its Friday, Dec. 21, and all Southern undergraduate students are encouraged to submit their fiction, memoir, artwork, and poetry.
Students at a Folio reading sat and listened to peers present original pieces of writing and art.
