NōD welcomes submissions for fall issue

By Melanie Woods, October 18 2016 —

Fancy yourself the next Shakespeare, Atwood or even Bob Dylan? The University of Calgary’s student-run literary journal NōD is currently accepting student submissions for their 20th issue.

A Students’ Union sanctioned club, NōD is entirely run by volunteer undergraduate students. They publish two issues a year with various themes and focuses.

“NōD is a creative publication on campus — the only creative writing publication,” NōD editor-in-chief Amy LeBlanc says. “We publish poetry, prose and artwork from students and non-students to really try and keep the creative atmosphere alive on campus.”

LeBlanc says submissions are open to both U of C students and members of the larger community.

“Right now we’re getting a lot more non-student work, but I’d really like to get as many student submissions as possible because we are a university publication,” she says. “It would be amazing to really showcase the artists we have on campus.”

While the most recent issue was unthemed, the theme for issue 20 will be “Rebirth.” LeBlanc says the theme holds special significance to NōD’s recent history.

“It sounds cheesy but [this issue is a] rebirth of the magazine because NōD’s had a little bit of a tumultuous history over the years,” she says. “Just starting fresh with new expectations and new goals and really making sure that we see those through.”

LeBlanc says that despite the theme, NōD is open to submissions of all topics. She says one of the goals of the publication is to unite literary communities within Calgary.

“There’s all these different literary communities in the city, they’re really incredible and we really want to bring all of those together for students if we can,” LeBlanc says.

While university can be a stressful and results-driven experience, LeBlanc says NōD hopes to provide creative reprieve.

“I really think for university students specifically we’re in a very driven environment where we have to work hard all of the time and kind of just put your head down and go [and] I think creative writing and artwork like we’re trying to publish can be a bit of a reprieve from that,” LeBlanc says. “That even if you flip open an issue and just take a couple minutes off from studying, then that’s absolutely worth it.”

Students can submit creative prose, poetry and artwork to NōD via email at nodmagazine@gmail.com. The submission period is open until Nov. 4. The new issue will be available in early December with a launch party on Dec. 9.

For more information, visit nodmagazine.wordpress.com