Giving students an outlet for their art

Poets, photographers, storytellers and creative types from all disciplines will seize the opportunity to be published this coming spring in Moorpark College’s award-winning annual creative arts magazine, the “Moorpark Review.”

Moorpark College offers courses in a wide array of artistic forms, from ceramics to graphic design, to creative writing and painting. The “Moorpark Review” serves as a valuable outlet to these varied programs, providing a place for the talents of students, alumni, staff and faculty to be showcased.

Hart Schulz, who co-founded the “Review” in 1998 along with fellow English Professor Tracy Tennenhouse, calls the magazine a “testing ground” for developing artists looking to experience the thrill of seeing their work in print.

“As a campus magazine, it’s a place where (students and faculty) can kind of get their feet wet, and see what that feels like,” said Schulz, a full-time professor who will be returning from a term-long sabbatical in the spring. “I mean, I can’t tell you how many people have submitted, thinking, ‘I don’t have a chance to get in this magazine,’ and then we wind up publishing them.”

Submission for the 2010 edition of the “Moorpark Review” opened last February, and officially closes on Feb. 10, 2010. All submissions are entirely anonymous up until the pieces are actually selected, at which point their creators are contacted for publishing permission.

Associated courses English M47 and M47L are the way for students to garner their seat in the publisher’s office. Students will meet Tuesday afternoons at 3:00 to read and view submissions, discuss and grade each piece and vote on them to be included or excluded in the publication.

The course offered is CSU-transferable. Students also take away a taste of what it feels like to cooperate as professionals in the fine art and publishing industries.

Trista Payte, student-editor of last year’s edition, and a contributing writer herself, said she was affected by her time working on the magazine.

“It showed me a side of the writing world that I hadn’t really experienced before,” said Payte, a mother as well as a student, who has since transferred to CSUN to pursue her English degree. “I think it’s good for writers as well as people that are just into reading fiction…to look at it from that point of view.”

Tennenhouse agrees, and wants there to be no misunderstanding about who they’re looking for.

“Sometimes (the staff) are English majors, but not always,” said Tennenhouse. “A number of people have backgrounds in art, photography, graphic design (or) other fields. We want all of those people.”

To submit poetry, short fiction, or visual arts for next spring’s edition of the “Moorpark Review,” to read the guidelines or to access online portions of past years, visit the “Moorpark Review” homepage at www.moorparkcollege.edu/review.