The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Humanities held the eighth annual “Digressions” launch on April 6 in the second floor gallery of the Alvin Sherman Library.
“Digressions” is the college’s student literary magazine. The magazine received 118 submissions from 27 students and the staff narrowed it down to 18 poems, three short stories and 13 visual artworks.
Nine faculty judges chose the winners in the categories, and the winners were announced at the launch. Ashley Allred’s short story “Abracadabra!,” Daniel King’s poem “They, Who are I,” and Lacrima Nemulescu’s photograph “The Time We Lost Our Way,” won first place. Nemulescu, junior biology major, said she has been painting for a long time but she got serious about it in high school.
“As much as I love math and science, art is a part of me,” she said. “I don’t do it for recognition, I do it to portray an idea to people and leave the interpretation to their imagination.”
The runners up were Victoria Rajkumar’s “From Childhood to Future,” Juan Miranda’s “Exile” and Mikaela Myers’ “Hummingbird” for short story, poetry and visual art respectively.
Several students read and spoke about their submissions to the magazine at the launch.
King won first place for his poetry last year as well. He said he was honored to be recognized.
“I love Digressions because a writer needs all the encouragement he can get,” he said. “It’s things like this that keep me writing.”
The magazine also had a new cover designed by Lauren Aurigemma, senior business and marketing major and chief of visual design for The Current. Students taking graphic design submitted their work for a chance to win.
The student staff chose the winning cover after the nine faculty judges, who also chose the winners, narrowed the submissions down to three.
Christopher Garcia, junior English major and Digressions’ editor-in-chief, said that working on the magazine was tough.
“It was fun but definitely challenging because we did everything differently this year,” he said. “We didn’t have a rough draft to follow from last year.”
Garcia said students can get a copy of Digressions from the third floor of the Parker Building, from the office of Suzanne Ferriss, Ph.D., or by asking their English professors.
Winners were also recognized at the Undergraduate Student Symposium on April 8.
