Short Vine: New digital journal for undergraduates makes its debut

A national literary journal for undergraduates called Short Vine has been launched by the University of Cincinnati’s Department of English in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

The digital publication’s name is derived from a popular street near the center of UC’s campus and journal categories include fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, art and photography. 

“Undergraduate literary magazines are important in that they provide an opportunity for new authors, especially young writers who are just starting to test the waters, to discover their voice, their passion and the topics and genres that are meaningful to them,” says faculty adviser Kristen Iversen, professor of English and nationally acclaimed author.    

Short Vine, Iversen says, has its roots as a small publication run by student volunteers, originally founded in 2003 by Katie Hartsock, who was at the time an undergraduate student in creative writing, with James Cummins, then a UC professor of English, as the first faculty adviser. Hartsock embarked on an impressive writing career and is currently an assistant professor of English at Oakland University.

Adviser Iversen says that students taking the course read all the submissions and decide what to accept; they communicate with the authors and artists; they design the cover and the journal pages and they do all the editing and proofreading. Two graduate students who are assistant editors with The Cincinnati Review, UC’s graduate-level literary journal, provided students a training session on proofreading strategies. 

Third-year UC student Peter Nelson served as a fiction editor. It was his responsibility to read, select and edit the fictional submissions individuals sent in for publication. 

“My greatest passion in life is the art of storytelling, so it was a pleasure to see individuals from around the world using stories as a way to process the tumultuous times we are living in,” says Nelson.

Nelson’s own nonfiction work, “Under Siege,” appears in the first issue. The experience of writing the piece, he says, “was rewarding in and of itself because it reminded me of my versatility as a writer; I usually write science fiction and fantasy, but this time I chose to write nonfiction.”

For most students, this will be their first published work, says Iversen. “They have something important to say, and now that voice has been heard and reached a significant audience.” 

Additionally, she says, students in the Literary Publishing class receive valuable writing and editing experience that can translate easily into a job or internship. 

Short Vine is now on Submittable, an online service, and accepts submissions from all over the world, as long as the writer or artist is an undergraduate student. Submission for the fall issue will begin Sept. 1, 2020.

Feature image is a cropped section of the Short Vine cover art. Image/Orion Alvarez