Notes from the Editors

November 2023

The National Program Directors’ Prize recognizes two undergraduate literary magazines annually in the categories of content and design. AWP reached out to the 2023 winners about their processes for compiling these outstanding issues.

Content Award

Selected by DeMisty D. Bellinger-Delfeld, Fitchburg State University

Lewis & Clark Literary Review #49, bone meal, Lewis & Clark College

Editors-in-Chief: Eve March, Jillian Jackson, and AJ Di Nicola

Editorial Assistant: Alina Cruz

Design Assistant: Elizabeth Huntley

AJ Di Nicola, Jillian Jackson, and Elizabeth Huntley: We believe in demystifying and democratizing the selection process. Open to all majors and class years, our editorial board votes on all pieces submitted to the Palatine Hill Review (formerly known as the Lewis & Clark Literary Review). A graduating editor-in-chief has the same amount of voting power as a freshman physics major— and that’s on purpose. 

Looking back, even bone meal’s earthy, more visceral concept might reflect the board’s makeup, which includes biology and other STEM majors, as well as English and art history majors in true liberal arts fashion. We all approach pieces with unique lived experiences and tastes, and we make a habit of changing each other’s minds, and changing them back, and well, you get the idea. 

The board has two main focuses when it comes to what we look for in the pieces we publish. First, like everybody else, we want pieces that display a strong technical command of the author’s chosen medium. In poetry, we especially like stream-of-consciousness, bilingual word play, and unruly punctuation. Semicolons forever!

Second, and more importantly, we seek out pieces that make us argue with each other—not just about stanzas or the rule of thirds, or a painting’s brushstrokes, but about life. A well-written piece about mental health, or first love, or grandparents on the decline shouldn’t garner the same reaction from different people. It’s rare we ever settle on total unanimity. 

Except for the poem about Godzilla and King Kong. We were all jealous we didn’t write that one.

Design Award

Selected by Travis Kurowski, York College of Pennsylvania

Grub Street #71, Towson University

Editors-in-Chief: Kourtney Douglas and Kelsey Franklin

Managing Editors: Alisha Hancock and Kayla Stottlemeyer

Print Designer: Khoi Nguyen

Kourtney Douglas: Our design process was truly collaborative—Kelsey, Khoi, Kayla, Alisha, and myself spent several hours over Zoom and in person talking about the placement of every aspect of the design up until days before sending it off to print. We had many ideas, some more ambitious than others. However, we decided upon the eyeglasses motif after selecting our favorite cover art option from artist Deandra Lee. It most accurately represented what we wanted the experience of the volume to be for our readers and created cohesion throughout. We wanted Volume 71 to be a window into the varying perspectives and illuminating themes that we saw in the pieces selected. We began working on this volume in 2021, when COVID-19 was an immediate and sobering concern. We hoped our issue would be a dedicated cultural artifact to the vast differences, similarities, and intrinsic value that each of our voices have, even in times of hazy uncertainty.