Oksana Carlier/Winonan

The 43rd annual issue of “Satori,” Winona State University’s fine arts magazine, is set to release later this spring, once submission period has closed and final decisions have been made.

English professor and adviser Gary Eddy said, the magazine is largely a student-run project. Students who want to be involved take a one-credit “Projects in Writing” course during the spring semester.

Before Eddy became the adviser ten years ago, the creative writing staff made selections.

Eddy turned “Satori” into a class topic in order to expand it.

“Satori” has been published under that name since the 1970s.

Eddy said the magazine is different in terms of size and length each year. “It depends on the work we get,” he said.

All students can submit work, and submission guidelines are posted around campus and on the WSU Update.

Elise Nelson, head editor of “Satori,” said the students in the class form committees to discuss and vote on what pieces should be accepted.

Nelson said there are committees for each section of the magazine: prose, poetry and visual art. She said an assigned editor facilitates each committee.

Besides facilitating, Eddy said editors learn to use software like Adobe InDesign to arrange the content of the magazine.

When it comes to making the actual selections, “Projects in Writing” classmates decide what gets published.

Names are removed from submissions, which means that editors and students in the class can enter their own work based on an honor system and cannot advocate for their work during discussion time, Nelson said.

Nelson also said that the class decides what they want the accepted standard to be, posing the questions, “Is something good enough, and is good enough good enough? Is something the best?”

“I am continually impressed with the quality of student work, and I think this is a wonderful learning experience for students who are involved,” Eddy said. “It’s always a delight for me to see these things emerge every spring.”

Regarding release day, Eddy said the magazine is always released sometime in the spring, but no one ever knows when it will get back from printing.

When the magazine arrives on time, copies are distributed around campus, Eddy said.

The “Satori” editors have also hosted a release party in recent years.