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After 54 years, Winona State University’s campus literary arts journal is once again accepting submissions of student artwork, stories, essays and poems. Submissions this year are due on February 16th. “Satori,” meaning “enlightenment, awakening, comprehension and understanding” in Japanese, is the overall value that the journal hopes to reflect in WSU’s campus community.
The annual journal of the arts is a compilation of short stories, essays, pieces of poetry, artwork, photography and other art pieces all submitted by students to be officially published in a bound book at the end of Spring semester. Not only are all the pieces submitted by students, but the journal also itself is edited by students as well.
Satori staff take the ENG 324 Projects in Writing: Satori Literary Magazine course to structure the submission and production process of creating the journal over a semester period. The class is divided into specific committees, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction and art committees. These committees of about two to four people (depending on the class size) are responsible for going through student submissions and organizing the selections for the final product.
Elizabeth Benfield, an English Literature and Language major and a part of the fiction committee commented on the skills that are gained through the creation of Satori through the Projects in Writing course.
“I like the behind the scenes of learning how to create a literary journal, but also like what publishing means… because we [don’t] really get a lot of knowledge about going out and doing a career in literature,” Benfield stated. “And so, learning about this is not only helpful now but in the future as well.”
Alex Peachey, a Communication Arts and Literature Teaching major and a part of the poetry committee echoed this sentiment while discussing the fulfillment provided by the editing process of Satori.
“My favorite part about Satori is the invaluable experience that I’m getting [from] being part of a publishing process,” Peachey stated. “I also love the creative aspects of designing marketing materials and working collaboratively with classmates to build something we can all be proud of.”
Satori staff are responsible for almost everything Satori; creating the initial press release, sifting through student submissions, choosing a theme, organizing the pieces accordingly and creating the final product that allows any student through WSU to become officially published. Truly a lot of work goes into the journal over a semester period, and student creativity and vulnerability is uplifted and shared through the final product.
Even a 23-page manual was created in 2023 to assist future Satori staff in creating the promotional material for the journal and producing the magazine itself; many moving pieces take part in this process, from choosing a cover photo to tabling to the release party in April.
Peachey stated that one of the main goals they personally have for the journal this year is that non-English majors at Winona State know about Satori and get involved in whatever way they can and want to.
“Satori is important because it opens the writing field up to all majors at Winona State,” Peachey said. “Most of the writing stays in the English department, but because of Satori, a Nursing or Computer Science major could get their creative works published; it’s important to allow every sect to experiment with things that traditionally ‘belong’ to other majors.”
College is a time where many students from many different backgrounds come together to form a new community. Xander Auman, an English writing major in the poetry committee, explained that Satori is a great opportunity to materialize this collection of perspectives and world views.
“I think that Satori is a way to be connected with those other people and understand things through the way that other people look at them,” Auman said.
