Available free and at various locations throughout the Tacoma campus is a literary magazine that contains high quality work completed by UWT students, staff and alumni.
The Tahoma West is a national award winning magazine that is published annually, displaying college art and literary work in four genres: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and visual art. Visual art includes paintings and photographs.
Submissions for the 2004 edition were accepted from October until mid-December, 2003. Submissions for the 2005 issue will be accepted from Oct. 1 until Dec. 15 of this year. The 2004 edition of the magazine will be available during spring quarter, throughout the Tacoma campus.
"We are in the throes of production now," Tahoma West managing editor Pam Torres said, describing the hard work of the Tahoma West staff as they compile the newest edition.
After a person submits a piece for publication, the data processing person sterilizes the submission so the judges cannot identify the work. Then the piece is submitted to the correct genre editor. If the work passes this stage, it is then read or viewed by all the judges.
"There must be a consensus," Torres explained. "A piece can jury for quite some time."
Though judging and compiling all of the literary and artwork
requires some time and effort from Torres and the rest of the Tahoma West staff, it is time well spent. A high quality and award-winning magazine is the end result.
The 2003 issue won two awards from The Association of Writers & Writing Programs - one for best layout design and another for best content. Leafing through past issues, it is easy to see why the magazine won national awards.
Most people attending the Tacoma campus do a lot of writing for college classes, whether a student, faculty member or staff employee.
Submitting work for publication in Tahoma West simply entails finding the best of those papers or artwork, and submitting them along with a filled out submission form to the publication staff.
For submission rules and a form, stop by the Tahoma West office in the first floor of the mattress factory, or call (253) 692-5604. The Tahoma West staff can also be reached by email at www.tahomaw@u.washington.edu.
The magazine also maintains a website at www.students.washington.edu/tahomaw/ that explains submission guidelines.
The website also has a link to view samples of past issues. Looking at hardcopies of prior issues is always a good idea, to understand the style of work the magazine is searching for.
Also, beginning in May of 2004, the magazine staff will be recruiting editors for next year, and anyone interested in participating as a Tahoma Staff member may look for forms and recruitment packets at that time.
UWT's literary magazine is published by and for the campus community, containing work submitted by students, staff, faculty and alumni. It is worth a few moments of your time to submit work for possible publication in Tahoma West, earning the bragging rights to say your work has been published in an award-winning magazine.
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