Renee Shaktivel
Staff Writer
Each year, a committee of creatives pores over photos, poetry and prose, collecting each piece in a glossy color volume called Black Rock & Sage.
The literary magazine is produced through ISU annually with the support of ASISU. The magazine was created in the early 1970s, originally known as The Last Stop Before the Desert, with the intent of capturing the voices of local writers.
During the 1980s, the magazine lost its funding and went dormant until several ISU students lobbied for a replacement. Thanks to their determination, the magazine was able to be restored, and several changes were made to the journal including a name changes.
The final name change was made during the 2002 edition under the direction of poet and first faculty editor Michael Sowder. The magazine has been known since as Black Rock & Sage, or BR&S, named after Idaho’s unique landscape.
Susan Goslee recently took over as advisor and shifted the focus of the content to a creative outlet for only ISU undergrad and graduate students, with an editorial input and full color print.
“We became dedicated to making BR&S a campus journal,” said Editor-in-Chief Anelise Farris. “Not just one that was published through ISU, but also one that showcased how much creative talent is present on campus.”
Many changes are still in the future for BR&S, as the editors hope to create a larger online presence through publishing copies of back issues from 2015 and posting interviews with writers, editors and contributors on the BR&S blog. They also hope to eventually publish twice a year.
BR&S accepts submissions from in many different creative forms, such as fiction stories, poems, plays, essays, memoirs, artwork, maps, x-rays, costume designs, musical performances and scores, with the conditions that each submission is unpublished, original, contains clean content, and appeals to all the senses of the body.
While the journal allows students from any background to tap into their creative side, it also provides work experience in editing to the students majoring in creative writing, professional writing and journalism.
“One of the biggest challenges is all of the copyediting,” Farris said. “We make sure each of the pieces is copyedited multiple times by various people, and it can be quite time consuming. But we are dedicated to producing a high-quality, professional product.”
There is not an inch of the book that is not created from student submissions.Farris said one of the fun challenges of completing an issue of Black Rock & Sage is choosing the color for the cover title and inserts.
With the dedication of staff from the art and music departments, every piece of artwork is studied, and a final winner is selected for the cover of the book.
Because the goal is to feature ISU students’ work, there’s not a limit set on how many pieces are accepted.
“We are open to anything that can be viewed aesthetically,” Farris said.
