On the third floor of the CAB sits a room bursting with journalistic ingenuity. Room 332, not just the headquarters of the CPJ, is also the home of our school’s bustling young literary magazine, Vanishing Point.
They are still a fairly fresh group, breathing new life into Evergreen’s literary scene after the old campus publication Slightly West fizzled into nonexistence a couple years ago. The magazine is currently run by a small handful of diligent students. The small group of coordinators have been hard at work since the beginning of last year planning out and getting ready to produce the publication, as pointed out by Cecilia Frank, one of four editors of Vanishing Point. “Starting the magazine was a bit daunting, but more fun than anything else,” she said. “We spent a lot of time last year during fall and winter quarters developing a vision for the magazine—our commitment to openness and accessibility, attempting to use the magazine to help foster a creative community—basically, our mission statement took a lot longer to develop than we expected. Planning for multiple platforms was also a daunting task, but it’s been pretty successful so far and we’re happy with how everything has turned out.” They are in the process of publishing their second issue.
Aside from the physical release, Vanishing Point also manages a blog where students can submit their work, which can be anything from fiction writing, to photography, to poetry, to music. Most of the content put into the magazine is pulled from the blog and voted on by the coordinators to be included among its pages.
All the members of Vanishing Point I spoke to have a combination of pride and hope for their publication, and they should. The student body has shown great interest in Vanishing Point with submissions coming in at a fairly steady pace, though of course the number of dedicated members for the magazine remain low, but that’s usually how it goes. “We are hoping to get more constituents in now so they can become coordinators in the future when we graduate. We’d love for Vanishing Point to live on after us, but it’s literally just five of us right now,” Said Jonah Barrett, another editor. And a school such as Evergreen needs something like Vanishing Point to show off the amazing work students can create. “I think Evergreen needs an arts and literary magazine because art deserves to be shared and praised in a community of people.” Barrett continued. “To me, art has a helluva lot more value when it is alive, and not tucked away in some messy portfolio under your bed. Seeing what everyone else is up to and sharing ideas is also always fun, and can open up possibilities to collaborations in the future with other artists.”
This next issue is slated to come out May 15 with a launch party show in the Student Art Gallery. Vanishing Point is printing 275 copies for this run, and they are entirely eager and excited for the results.
If you are interested in joining the Vanishing Point crew (they are always looking!) you can stop by CAB 332 Fridays at 5:30 p.m. to chat with these friendly folks or shoot them an email at tesc.vanishingpoint@gmail.com. They are also always looking for submissions which you can send in over at their blog at vanishingpointlitmag.wordpress.com.
