NC State students who are more artistically inclined may be searching for an outlet to publish their work. NC State’s literary and arts magazine, Windhover, provides a platform for members of the NC State community to have their work published. The magazine recently released its 53rd edition, which is available for free at various spots around campus.

Xenna Smith, a second-year studying communication media and the editor-in-chief of Windhover, spoke about this year’s edition of the magazine.

“This year’s edition of Windhover, I’d like to say, is a little more standout compared to previous years,” Smith said. “We’ve tried to do a lot of new things that we’ve never really delved into in the past. This year we introduced video submissions, which Windhover has never really done before, so that’s really exciting. We’ve also started our own content creation through our features section, called Subvolo, where we make content on artists in the Raleigh and NC State Community.”

Creating an entire literary and arts magazine is no simple feat. Over the course of the academic year, each section within Windhover must collaborate together as well as with the magazine’s contributors. Smith touched on the time it takes to create each edition.

“It usually takes about a year,” Smith said. “We start as early as we can in September … and pretty much as soon as we get people hired, we start our marketing process and asking for open submissions. Around wintertime we close submissions out, and our staff and committee members then take the time to sort through those submissions to decide what will go in the book. After that, our design team works together to put all of that content together into one book.”

Lucy Marcum, a third-year studying English, was the literary editor for this year’s edition of Windhover. She spoke about Windhover’s content, mentioning that those interested in submitting to the magazine can base their work on any topic.

“We don’t really pick a theme because we want the people submitting to be able to submit whatever they want to,” Marcum said. “We don’t want to limit them in topic or theme, so we let people submit whatever they want. If a theme comes out of it, that’s great, but we still want to make sure we’re picking the best pieces.”

The release was commemorated with an event on April 12, held at Artspace in downtown Raleigh.

“I [was] really excited about the turnout,” Smith said. “We [had] our performers go up to read their accepted pieces, we [had] a musician, and we also have people gathering their art to display. I’d like to think that this party [was] this book, but in real life. It’s all the people who came together to make it happen, all in one space celebrating it, and that’s really awesome to see.”

Claire Spina, a fourth-year studying science, technology and society, wrote the prose piece “Zugunruhe” for Windhover, and read her work at the event.

“I wrote [‘Zugunruhe’] last spring as part of a class,” Spina said. “I reworked it a couple of times, and I really liked the piece. I normally don’t really like the things I write for class, but I really felt that this piece was worth trying to get published.”

Marcum encourages those interested in submitting to Windhover to put forth their best work, even if they have some doubts about them.

“Honestly, don’t be afraid,” Marcum said. “I know a lot of people who chose not to submit to Windhover because they were afraid their pieces wouldn’t be accepted … Even if you have a huge doubt about a piece being submitted, you have nothing to lose. You’re not paying to submit or anything like that, just find the work that you think best expresses yourself and who you are as a writer and send it in.”

More information on Windhover, as well as the video entries from this year, can be found on their website.

*Editor’s note: Windhover is a branch of NC State Student Media