Interested in Being Published? Submit to Synecdoche!

The Vanguard community is full of student-run organizations. Our peer population is extremely involved in the campus life, whether that be the Office of Student Engagement, the Intercultural Clubs, or even our student-run Shine Worship Nights. Another Vanguard project that is run entirely by students is the Synecdoche literary journal.

On Vanguard.edu, under the Academic Programs page, there is a brief explanation of what Synecdoche is and links where you can read the previous journals for free.

The Synecdoche literary journal is described on the Academic Programs pages as “An entirely student-run publication, the journal is comprised of student publications, including creative works: short stories, poetry, stage plays, and creative nonfiction; scholarly works; and photography and artwork.”

To explain further, the Synecdoche journal is the senior project for the English majors on campus. The students spend the first semester of their senior year preparing to put the journal together during their last semester.

This senior project is interesting because it relies on the participation of other students, even their peers outside of the major. The average Synecdoche journal has about 170 pages of student work—including creative work, essays, and art. These pieces can be submitted by any major. In fact, the journal thrives when it has a diverse field of work.

Mikyla Bultsma, a former board member of Synecdoche said, “My favorite thing about Synecdoche as an English major was the opportunity to go through the editing and submission process and get an experience with what it is like to be on the other side of things.”

Submit and Publish and of your Writing!

She continued, giving insight on how students should feel about submitting. Bultsma said, “As a regular student in general, I loved that Synecdoche was an option to be published. Regardless of your major, it’s just a more simplistic way to be published, and it’s something you can put on your CV and your resume for the future. As far as publications go, this is a really non intimidating one.”

The use of Synecdoche as a senior capstone offer an amazing opportunity, not only for English majors to produce a literary Journal of their own making, but also for non-English majors to be published. Having an academic paper, short story, poem, photograph, or piece of art published in a journal will look good on anyone’s resume, no matter the profession you are going for.

This semester, you have the opportunity to submit to Synecdoche for the early submission deadline! The 2024 Synecdoche staff will be giving away gift cards to one of the students who submits to Synecdoche by Nov. 17 and Dec. 17. Be sure to email any work you have to synecdoche@vanguard.edu to win a Starbucks or Amazon gift card and possibly be published!