Hi everyone!

Here at the University of Iowa, we’re in the final stretch of classes with less than three weeks until the official end of the semester! I don’t know about you guys, but I can’t believe how fast these past couple of months have flown by. It already seems so unreal that I’m going into my final year as an undergraduate, so I know my main priority this next year is to continue to spend time with my friends, celebrate my clubs/organizations, and really make the most out of my education and classes.

One big thing that I’ve been involved with on campus since my first year has been on-campus magazines. I started my first year as the Editor-in-Chief of InkLit magazine, and in my second year, I was the nonfiction editor of earthwords magazine. This past year, I was promoted to managing editor, and I’m excited to say that I’ll be returning again as the managing editor for my final year.

All of that being said, I love working on literary magazines which is why I wanted to dedicate a blog post to one of my favorite parts of the process: having the launch party! And I’m not kidding when I say this was probably the most beautiful launch party that I’ve been to yet!

For this year’s launch party, earthwords really leaned into the nature theme (you can also see that with the fish and pastel palette on this recent issue’s stunning cover!). So, to continue to foster the nature vibes, we decided to host the launch party at an event space downtown called The Greenhouse.

In the past, launch parties have mainly been held at coffee shops or university event spaces, but The Greenhouse is a newer location that has continued to be an open, inviting, and yes, green space for different organizations to use. Overall, the executive team thought it would reflect earthwords the best and I’m so glad we went with our guts because The Greenhouse was the right choice to showcase our newest issue to the community.

Thanks to our phenomenal Executive Editor, Sarah, we were able to have snacks, cake, and copies of the magazine ready for the contributors and their friends when everyone arrived. I know myself and the rest of the team were shocked by how many people came to get a copy of the magazine, support their writer friends, and enjoy the undergraduate literary community on campus. Our event was so much of a success that we actually ran out of magazines to give to people!

For the event itself, Sarah introduced the contributors who offered to read their work, we had a special speech from Danny, our publisher, and we were able to introduce our next Executive Editor, Sophia, who will be running earthwords next year! As for me, I was tasked with taking photos of the event to post on the official Iowa Admissions social media page, so I was on my feet the whole time! As you can see, the pictures came out beautifully!

The event came to a close way too soon and it really hit me how much I’m going to miss this staff next year. We have a majority of staff members returning, but our seniors are so near and dear to our hearts that it’s daunting to feel like I’m going to be a senior that needs to take up the earthwords mantel in a couple months. But overall, I have full faith in the incoming team and I’m so excited to see the direction that the magazine goes next year!

If you’re interested in joining a literary magazine on campus, I would HIGHLY recommend interviewing for it. You can apply even if you aren’t a liberal arts major since the staff applications for all magazines are open to ALL majors. So, even if you’re just interested in learning more about literature and writing, this is definitely a space where you can foster that interest.

But to those of you who are big readers and writers like myself, I honestly feel like the literary community is exactly the kind of community I wanted to find when I left high school. I came to the University of Iowa to be with people who love reading and writing just as much as I do, and the staff members of these literary magazines have definitely been those people.

So, if you’re thinking about coming to campus (or you’ve already decided to accept your offer!), please apply for literary magazines!

We’d love to have you!