Have you heard of Pamplemousse? Do you want to learn about the history of Literature and Literary Magazines? Want to use your creativity for fun? Taught by Associate Professors Jensen Beach and Elizabeth Powell, Pamplemousse — or The History and Art of Publishing — is a class that introduces the basics of editing and production for literary journals.
Throughout the class, students learn how to run a professional journal using Pamplemousse as a “teaching device.” The class aims to teach the history of literary publishing and the expectations of working for publishing industry, and it serves as an opportunity for the next generations of writers to harness the necessary skills for professional development. In addition, Pamplemousse is a not-for-profit publication, so creatives who wish to submit work don’t have to pay a fee in order to do so.
From the perspectives of the student editing team, class meetings consist of reviewing submissions to decide what to publish for each issue. Dayne Bell, a Creative Writing BFA student, recalls devising which piece to publish based on what the team evaluates.
“I had to keep in touch with those who got accepted about updates to their bios, and just in case something they submitted got accepted somewhere else. We lost a few submissions like that,” said Bell.
Jo Cutler, a junior Secondary Education major, has also been part of the Pamplemousse student editing team in the past. Like Bell, they were responsible for deciding the best submissions for that year’s digital issue. Cutler was also responsible for the new layout of the Pamplemousse website.
“At the beginning of the semester, when Jenson showed us the Pamplemousse website we all hated it,” they said. “It hadn’t changed since Jenson made it in 2016.”
Due to the student’s distaste for the website’s design, including many pictures of grapefruits (pamplemousse is French for grapefruit), the team found it necessary to create a new one. According to Culter, the editing team tried to draw inspiration from other literary journals. However, they decided that the creation of a new site was an easier route as opposed to re-working it.
“We kept the grapefruit theme, but instead of the off-putting grapefruit photos, we made the website the colors of a grapefruit and the logo half of a grapefruit,” said Cutler.
The last ten years of Pamplemousses’s run were replete with many positive impacts. Beach said the class is a wonderful place for those passionate about writing, and an opportunity for faculty to share their experiences with students.
In addition, Bell said he appreciated the diversity within every set of submissions.
“We got pieces in different languages, and people submitted from all over the world,” he said. “We published one poet, Adeniyi Odukoya, who submitted from Nigeria, which is amazing. We published poems about lesbians and by lesbians, about sex, about religion …”
Professors Beach and Powell additionally work on the editing team for the award-winning literary magazine Green Mountains Review. Also based on the Johnson campus, the GMR publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, narrative essays, and book reviews by diverse writers and newcomers. Recently, it was dubbed as one of New England’s top ten literary magazines by The Boston Globe.
Want to feature your writing in Pamplemousse? Submissions will open in early October and close at the beginning of Thanksgiving Break. Our campus community and those outside of it can submit poetry, fictional and non-fictional stories, book reviews, and art. Submissions are open through the website at www.pamplemoussevt.org/submit.
For those interested in joining the class next semester, Beach’s first advice is to have fun! Let yourself find joy in work that may not seem easy. If you have questions about Pamplemousse, contact Beach at [email protected] or Powell at [email protected].
