ARC’s literary journal seeks increased student involvement
Regardless of major, students who have interest in the arts or publication can take this class
The American River Review at American River College is looking to get more students involved with its magazine in the spring semester of 2022. (Photo courtesy of The American River Review)
The American River Review is an English writing class run by Michael Angelone, an English professor at American River College.
This class, which is still currently taught online, allows students to learn how to put together a literary magazine comprising submissions the staff receives over the span of a year.
The next volume will be released in February 2023 and will comprise of art, poetry and photography that they collect from the rest of this year. Submissions are open to anyone, even non-students, according to Ali Blanco, the ARR’s associate editor.
Volume 35 for 2022 was released earlier this semester, and every year the magazine’s team help create a general standard of what they want the magazine to be like, with inspiration taken from current world events such as the pandemic, according to Jewel Jones, ARR publicist and assistant associate editor.
“My staff knows that this transcends just ‘roses are red and violets are blue’,” Angelone said in a Zoom interview. “It is political and every issue we create is new and different that tries to represent what is going on in the world.”
Angelone encourages open-minded and genuinely interested students, not just in the English major, to join the course. He says he is currently working on an incentive where if a student takes this class, with one more such as another elective, the student can earn a certificate in publishing.
The team is made up of a determined and passionate group wanting to get involved and making sure the magazine is not only published correctly and has great work implemented in it, but also expresses concern over its accessibility for viewers according to Angelone.
The Review magazine has operated since 1984 and holds multiple competitive awards over the years, with the last one being the Community College Humanities Association Literary Magazine Competition in 2019. They are looking to apply to the digital publication competitions for the next volume of the magazine.
“Our goal is to start competing in the digital categories since print publication is sort of dead,” Angelone said. “We were one of the first community colleges in the nation to have a free online platform and we need to enter into these competitions that we have won before to see how we are perceived again.”
