Mississippi State University’s creative arts journal, The Streetcar, will be hosting interest meetings this week for any student who would like to become a part of their staff or submit their personal work.
The idea for The Streetcar was originally conjured up in 2013 by MSU’s Rhodes Scholar, Field Brown, and Hannah Humphrey, but due to set backs and the agony that sometimes comes with creating an organization from the ground up on a campus of more than 20,000 people, it did not come to fruition until April of 2014.
The title of the journal was chosen after the influential Mississippi playwright, Tennessee Williams, and his work, “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Dr. Eric Vivier, an assistant professor of English on Mississippi State’s campus, sits as the faculty advisor for the group and has done so for the last three volumes.
“The students who run The Streetcar are committed to the importance of the arts, and see The Streetcar not just as an outlet for creative expression but also as a real force for organizing and promoting creative expression at Mississippi State University,” Vivier said.
The current Co-Editor-in-Chief, Morgan Hydrick, relayed that The Streetcar is a “close-knit staff of 12, (soon to be 15) students.” The creative arts journal is looking for “creative people of all majors and classifications, even grad students,” Hydrick said. They are looking for a wide range of interests and works in submissions.
“Ultimately, we are looking for students who are passionate about art and writing or just need a creative outlet because they aren’t always creative within their majors,” Hydrick explained.
The interest meetings will be held this Wednesday, Aug. 23, and Thursday Aug. 24, at 5 pm in room 405 of Griffis Hall. The current staff will be explaining to those who wish to submit creative work to the journal how to do so and informing the prospective staff members on where they need to go to fill out an application. It is also an opportunity to meet the current group of students working on The Streetcar and get a feel for the environment of the project.
The Streetcar accepts a wide range of submissions, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art/photography. In past volumes they have included scientific aspects to help disprove the idea that art and science are nonexclusive and must exist separately.
In the third volume, they “printed a computer code for a ‘HaikuBot’ program that created haikus on its own,” according to Hydrick. A Haiku is a specific form of poetry that is based around three lines. The first and last line of the poem being five syllables each and the middle line being seven.
Applications to submit work as well as staff applications can be found at The Streetcar’s website, www.thestreetcarmsu.wordpress.com. The deadline for submissions of work for Volume 5 is Nov. 20, while the deadline for staff applications is Monday Aug. 29.
The fifth volume is set to release in April 2017.
For questions, comments or concerns, you can email the journal at, [email protected]. Stay updated with everything The Streetcar on their Twitter page, @TheStreetcarMSU.
