Cal Poly’s award-winning annual literary magazine “Byzantium” serves as a stepping-stone for serious writers, English professor and “Byzantium” adviser Kevin Clark said. The magazine has turned out award-winning and published poets and fiction writers since its beginning.
The magazine began as a senior project back in 1990 by English major Jocelyn Webb. “Byzantium” publishes literary works of all of the winners from the Al Landwehr Creative Writing Contest, the namesake taken from a fiction writer and former English professor at Cal Poly. The contest began in 1970. Last year’s “Byzantium” co-editor and English graduate Brita Shallcross said all majors are welcome.
There are also monetary rewards for the winners, Shallcross said. First place receives $100, second $75 and third $50.
Clark has been advising the magazine since its first year. Clark said “Byzantium” has seen some remarkably good writers. Some received full scholarships to go to graduate programs in creative writing.
Melinda Moustikas, a 2004 English graduate of Cal Poly was accepted into the creative writing master’s program at UC Davis and received her doctorate from Western Michigan University. She won the 2010 Flannery O’Connor Award for short fiction. She has been named in The National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” for fiction in 2011 and is one of four who have been chosen by the Princeton Lewis Center for Arts Hodder Fellows for 2012-13, she said.
Moustikas said she entered the contest because she thought she was getting somewhere with her fiction. She said she thought to herself, “why not?”
Doug Cox received an honorable mention during his senior year at Cal Poly in 1998. Cox, now an English professor at Messa University in Colorado and published poet, said he keeps “Byzantium” near and dear.
“It was my first published poem,” Cox said. The poem, “The Clinic,” told of going to get an AIDS test at a free clinic in San Luis Obispo. “It was something personal and political.”
Cox began college as a biological sciences major, but quickly switched to English, he said. He said writing classes (one of the professors was Clark) and the speaker series of fiction writers and poets got him interested in writing.
Cox recently published a book of poems called “The Last Decent Jukebox in America” in April 2011. The poems are about music and musicians that inspired him, as well as some social and political poems, he said.
Biomedical engineering senior Aaron Rowley took first place for fiction writing last year. His piece, A New View, tells of an interaction between a young boy and elderly man on a rooftop. Rowley said the piece was inspired when he saw a man on a secluded rooftop close to the edge. Rowley thought, if he jumped, no one would be around to see him, he said. Then he wondered, what if he were interrupted by someone wanting to do the same thing? Thus, A New View was born.
“I love the fact that Cal Poly has this contest,” Rowley said. “I don’t have many opportunities to be creative in my major.”
A book is in the works for Rowley, he said. “Let There Be Care” describes a boy who’s not satisfied with the culture of his hometown. He meets some strange people that change his whole view of things. Rowley said it’s a magical subculture, however, he uses the term loosely because the magic isn’t like “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings.”
Behind Byzantium are two student editors (English majors only, Clark said), one Art and Design student and three judges. The judges for the contest are all English professors outside the creative writing program. They chose the first, second and third winners in a blind judging, Clark said.
“What you have is a contest that’s very fair,” Clark said.
For the last three years, editors meet with the judges and then pick “editor’s choices,” instead of the previous honorable mentions. Last year’s Art and Design student was senior Catherine King.
According to Shallcross, the judges debate style and whether a certain piece is the best or not. She said the judges don’t usually agree. They make their decisions based on elements of the craft — plot, character development and whether or not the poem makes sense, for example, she said.
Becoming an editor for Byzantium is a very competitive process, Clark said.
Clark and co-adviser Prof. Todd Pierce read the applications very carefully and question the references, Clark said. They consider GPA, knowledge of grammar and how responsible the applicant is based on the reference’s testimony, Clark said. They also look for applicants with a background in creative writing. Usually, they receive five to eight applications, and chose the two who they think will be the best all around, Clark said.
Byzantium is distributed for free around campus and at English department events. A copy of last year’s magazine can be found in the English department office.
The contest opens winter quarter. Entries are submitted to the English department along with the student’s full name and contact information, Shallcross said. The deadline for submission is noon, Feb. 10.