The Tower Light is Hillsdale’s official student literary magazine. Courtesy | The Collegian

The Tower Light’s spring edition will take a new approach in showcasing student work, with the added theme of “rhythm” and a never-before-seen faculty submissions, according to senior Sophie King, the publication’s editor-in-chief this semester.

“My goal is to see the diversity of different works that could be related to the theme, so it’s an aesthetically coherent whole with very diverse takes,” King said.

The Tower Light, Hillsdale’s official student literary magazine, accepts works of poetry and prose, such as short fiction, accompanied by all mediums of visual art, including drawings, oil paintings, photography, and digital art. It receive upwards of 40-50 submissions per edition, according to King.

“I really wanted to stimulate a new interest in The Tower Light; I think it is an extremely important part of campus,” King said. “Conversation of creative work is open to everyone. You as a Hillsdale College student who has read great books, artists or studied great paintings in art history, are especially equipped to join into that conversation.”

According to King, The Tower Light provides both a creative outlet and a learning environment for Hillsdale students through active engagement between editors and authors. When work is submitted to the publication, the editorial board works with students, giving feedback and assistance to form the final draft.

“That creates this really cool conversation around the work and creates more of a cultural community around creative writing,” King said. 

King said there can be a tendency to regard the great works as a static body with the best having already been accomplished, but The Tower Light puts forth a different perspective.

“The Tower Light really encourages students to actually contribute something of their own and to recognize you don’t have to be Shakespeare to write something worthwhile,” King said. “It can be tempting, as an artist, to keep your work private because it’s so vulnerable — to try to seek publication, to have your work out in the open — but I think ultimately, if you never show anyone your works, it’s not going to come to its fullest potential. When you do step into that position of vulnerability, and it turns out people really like your work, and there’s something really valuable there that’s very affirming.”

Senior Sofie Kellar, a member of the editorial board and former editor-in-chief, said The Tower Light was the most similar publication to where she wanted to submit her work professionally.

“I wanted to write poems and short stories and novels, and I wanted to be able to put it out there,” Kellar said. “We try to do our best to bring the fine arts out of our students. People submit good stuff. It’s pretty impressive.”

King said she hopes the newly added faculty submission will provide inspiration for students. 

“It would help contribute to the purpose of the Tower Light by also reminding the students that our professors, who are incredible scholars and study these great works, also like creating creative work,” King said.

The Tower Light’s faculty adviser, Assistant Director of the Dow Journalism Program Maria Servold, said she hopes the theme will increase the amount of submissions.

“It’ll give writers something to aim for,” Servold said. “Even if someone didn’t have anything written that they’re ready to submit, if they see that there’s a theme, they may think, ‘I could try to do something for that.’”

Servold said The Tower Light has grown over the past five to 10 years as a consistent, professional literary magazine, run by students.

“There were a few years where it felt like a club, and that’s not the goal, because The Tower Light is the best place for students to do creative writing on campus since we don’t have a full-blown creative writing program,” Servold said.

King said the publication seeks work that is genuine to the contributor.

“We really want to see work that is sincere. Don’t write something that is what you might think we want to see or in imitation of a poetic style that isn’t necessarily your style,” King said. “We really want to see everything.”

Senior Rachel Moeller, former head of the magazine’s visual art board, called The Tower Light a microcosm of Hillsdale’s pursuit of the good, true, and beautiful.

“The craft and beauty that can be found in the written word when strung together in a very precise and intentional sort of way, and that beauty is emphasized when paired with a beautiful artistic piece as well,” Moeller said. “The Tower Light makes an emphasis of that by considering how art and craft can reveal the greater truth of humanity.”

The Tower Light is accepting submissions for feedback until Feb. 14 and final submissions until Feb. 20. Email submissions to towerlight@hillsdale.edu.

“If you are an artist who hasn’t submitted your work before, we would love to see it,” King said. “I would encourage you to just take a stab at it because you can only learn. There’s no downside.”