There are certain people on this campus that are driven every day to ensure that our students advance in areas such as digital studies and writing. One such person is Travis DuBose, who introduced our small but ever-growing campus to The Scarlet Review, back in 2015. Here is where the magic happens, as cliche as that may sound. Students who enroll in DuBose’s course, Digital Publishing, get to create the new issue of the literary magazine by selecting works from author submissions, designing the website, and editing and copyediting pieces. With DuBose’s guidance, in other words, students get the first-hand experience in this world. I suppose what I am trying to point out is that the students and advisory involving this issue, as well as past issues, diligently give this magazine their all. Not only just to offer an enjoyable reading experience to the campus, but to also properly publish student authors’ work with the respect they deserve.
Yet, I believe that our team this year went above and beyond for the 2019 issue of The Scarlet Review. The entire staff worked together to formulate new ideas, such as taking the magazine out of its comfort zone by diversifying the design, the contents, and even involving social media and a public reading. Surprisingly, our team was continuously on the same page in terms of what we wanted this issue to be. We agreed that we wanted The Scarlet Review this year to not hold back and to be the closest depiction we could muster of the world we currently reside in. This job was far from easy. As a team, we were only able to accept a certain number of pieces, and despite our big ideas and input, there were still restrictions due to the timing we had to create this issue. We also had to take into consideration the fact that we were still in a class through the University.
I am going to be cliche once again and conclude this with one of the most notorious quotes in history, by none other than Gandhi himself: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.” The authors of these pieces expressed their true emotions and thoughts in a time where, more than ever, those emotions and thoughts are urged to be swallowed. The authors of this issue very creatively touched upon real-world trials such as racism, internal battles, mental illness, love, and many others, bravely speaking into a continuously-darkening tunnel. Where we are right now in the world is horrifying, there are trials happening as I type this, and as you are reading it. Yet, these authors were given a gift so strong that will change the way people view the world, and that gift is writing. Therefore, I give an overly powerful thank you to the authors of this year’s The Scarlet Review who were fearless in their words, to the staff who worked endlessly to make this issue outstanding, to the advisor who took time to guide and create, and to the readers who give meaning to all of this. Thank you, everyone, for working together to be a shining light.
Best,
Eliana Puschett
Editor-in-Chief
