by Micah Sommer

Earlham’s student-run literary magazine is going through some changes this year. 

In the past, a new issue of “Crucible” has usually come out every semester. However, this academic year will only see one issue of the magazine, to be released in the spring. While this may disappoint devoted readers of the magazine, the staff of “Crucible” hopes to create a much-improved publication through a variety of changes. 

Most prominently, persons submitting pieces to the magazine will have a chance to receive comments from the staff and revise their work before publication.

Senior Carmina Brelsford, co-convenor of “Crucible,” said that the magazine only released one issue last year as well. However, she attributed this to the fact that the staff did not feel prepared in the fall to release an issue, calling it a “last-minute” decision.

This year, however, the single release will allow those who have submitted work to the magazine to revise and resubmit their work if they wish to do so. 

Senior co-convenor Helen Staab anticipates that the resulting higher quality work will make up for the fact that there will be only one issue. “We’d rather have one really solid issue for the whole year than have two OK ones,” she said.

Staab also hopes that this will change the process from one in which “strangers that you don’t know [are] sitting in a room saying things about your piece that you never hear, and then deciding whether or not it gets in,” to one in which submitters are more involved in selection process beyond initially submitting their work.

The staff has not decided on a way to go about giving feedback, according to Staab. “I think we’ll end up emailing people who submitted and asking if they want [critiques],” she said.

The opportunity for additional revision is not the only benefit of only putting out one issue. “It gives us more money, actually, to print that [one] issue,” Staab said. The staff hopes to use this extra money to include more full-color inserts of visual art.

Staab also hopes to feature a wider variety of works, both literary and visual. “I’m really into trying to diversify Crucible,” she said. She noted that while the magazine has generally featured mostly poetry, they recently have been receiving other types of material as well, such as science fiction, plays and translations.

Staab also hopes to diversify the visual material the magazine publishes. “We get a lot of photography,” she said. “We’re trying to work on getting more drawing, painting and even pictures of beautiful ceramics; I’d be into that.”

Staab noted that not only students are invited to submit works; faculty and staff may do so as well.

Brelsford recommended that those with pieces to submit wait until the spring to do so, allowing the “Crucible” staff to focus now on giving feedback to those who have already submitted.

Whether the new release schedule will continue is currently unknown. “I’m not sure if the one-issue-per-year thing will be sticking,” Brelsford said. “That’s basically going to be up to the staff for next year.”

Both co-convenors were unsure of how long “Crucible” has been in publication.  Staab recounted a claim that the magazine and its name predate the publication of Arthur Miller’s 1953 play “The Crucible;” however, she was unsure of its veracity.  The Earlham Archive and Lilly Library house bound issues of the magazine dating to 1964.

Visiting Assisitant Professor of English David Ebenbach, the magazine’s faculty advisor, credited Earlham students with keeping the magazine alive. 

“‘Crucible’ is important because it underlines that the center of the writing community on campus is among the students,” he said.

Speaking of his role as adviser, he said, ““I do pretty close to nothing and I think that’s the point … one reason that there’s a sort of constant of a literary magazine at this school is because it comes out of actual student interest and student devotion, and is not dependent on faculty energy.”