Sink Hollow: New literary journal for undergraduates starts at USU

Students and faculty members of the English department at Utah State University are set to launch a new literary journal this spring. The journal, titled Sink Hollow, will be run almost entirely by students and will publish literature submitted by undergraduates.

The English department has previously operated the magazines Petroglyph and Isotope, but they were both discontinued for various reasons. In early August of last year at a departmental retreat, members of the Creative Writing Committee floated the idea of beginning another literary journal.

“It happened organically and almost overnight. The next thing I knew, we were having our first staff meeting and coming up with a name for the magazine,” said Robb Kunz, a lecturer in the English department who volunteered to be involved in the project.

The name of the journal is particularly unique. “Literary journals usually select a name based on a distinguishing regional feature,” Larsen said. Justin Smith, a fiction editor for the journal, explained the significance of the name in an email:

“Sink Hollow is a geographic anomaly located in Logan Canyon. They’re basically big holes in the ground that capture heavy air, making the whole surrounding area have unusually low temperatures. We felt like it was name that lingered, and we hope to publish art and writing that does the same,” Smith said.

Shay Larsen, a graduate student studying English literature and writing, is the managing editor of the journal. “It’s an undergraduate journal—by undergraduates, for undergraduates,” she said. She is the only graduate student involved in the project, where 14 undergraduate editors and four faculty advisors join her as the staff.

“There were so many people who were interested, that it just picked up and took off with very little effort. Everyone involved is highly motivated,” Larsen said. They even met over the holiday break.

“There aren’t a lot of internship opportunities as far as the English Department goes, so we do what we can with what we’ve got, even if it means starting something up. This gives students something to put on their résumé, which is incredible,” Larsen said.

Sink Hollow not only gives students the opportunity to run a journal, but to publish in one as well. “It’s really difficult to get published as an undergraduate, and we hope to provide students who are trying to break into the writing world a chance to do that,” said junior Millie Tullis, who is an editor for the journal. “For any undergrad creative writer at USU, this is a really amazing opportunity,” she said.

Submissions aren’t just open to creative writing, however. The journal will include works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and art. The types of art can include anything from original photographs to digital art to photos of ceramics projects.

The scope of the journal is broader than just Utah State. “[USU] students are welcome to send in any of those things, but we’re also not limited to our campus alone,” Vaughn said.

The editorial team at Sink Hollow has already received more than 50 submissions from undergraduates all over the world, including New York, Kansas, Oman and India. “And this is without very much effort on our part,” Larsen said. Until the past few weeks, the extent of their advertising had been a handful of newsletters and online mailing lists.

Since the average literary journal usually receives only 100 to 150 works per submission period, Sink Hollow is already exceeding expectations for a first issue. “Our deadline is March 1, so there’s still plenty of time to double or triple what we have now,” Larsen said.

“It started out just being something fun, but it very quickly became something stressing quality,” Larsen said. By utilizing highly trained readers and editors, Sink Hollow hopes to attract and publish only high-quality pieces of literature.

Though numbers are tentative, since this is the first edition of the journal, Larsen anticipates that 3 to 4 pieces of literature from each of the four categories will be accepted. The journal will operate and publish completely online at sinkhollow.org. The first issue is set to publish on April 19.

— braydensobrien@gmail.com