by James Saxinger
“Blackberry Winter," a compilation of poetry, art and music from the RCU community, has won a second national award for its 20th anniversary edition.
The National Council of Teachers of English in Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines, known as REALM, gave the title of “Distinguished” to the 2024 journal in recognition of “excellent literary magazines that celebrate the art and craft of writing.” For its previous national award, the journal was given the title of “Excellent.”
Melissa St. Pierre, assistant professor of English, writing program administrator and co-chair of the Department of English, has overseen the journal since she started teaching at RCU in 2021.
“For me, being creative is this profound act of bravery,” St. Pierre said. “Blackberry Winter is an inclusive space where everyone’s submissions are welcome. It is one of those places that is special because it is all inclusive and it gives people a chance to show a part of themselves that they might not show off in any other venue.”
She describes the process of creating the journal as an intensive project. “We sit down with our binding machine, and we score the paper all on our own, bind the copies, and then set them aside. It really is handmade and labor intensive, but when we are done, we can say, ‘We did this.’ ”
Alongside a head student editor, Zac Watson, associate professor of humanities and co-chair of the Department of English, also is a major part of the journal’s creation.
Watson has taught at RCU since 2004 and he has helped with the “Blackberry Winter” since joining the university. “I like seeing this tradition carry on and in tribute for those who previously worked on it. We say that at RCU that we should develop personal and professional abilities. I say this definitely helps in developing those professional ones,” he said.
St. Pierre and Watson both want student involvement to be prominent. “I’d like for willing artists to read their piece and create a small YouTube video to link to their bio in the digital version,” St. Pierre said. “For our visual artists, we want them to talk about their visual works. That way, it humanizes the journal a little bit and gives it something that the other journals don’t have.”
Watson said he hopes they can have a launch party for the journal and that participation can be a part of Community, Life and Worship programming. “I feel like (student life) is trying to offer more opportunities for credit and so the hope would be that the students who would attend would become more interested in the journal," he said.
The “Blackberry Winter” team is working on the 21st addition of the journal, which is set to arrive in late spring. Submissions in the following areas are welcome:
Poetry
Song Lyrics
Short
Stories
Micro-fiction
Photography
One-act plays
Visual art
If you would like to submit content, email it to blackberrywinter@rochesteru.edu by March 3.
To read a digital version of “Blackberry Winter” journals, go to blackberrywinterjournal.wordpress.com.
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