Last Saturday was a day I’d been looking forward to all year. Nimbus literary and arts magazine held our launch party for this year’s edition of the magazine. The magazine didn’t get published last year, so being able to hold our creations in our hands was an incredible feeling. I joined Nimbus last year as a staff editor at the activities fair in the fall. I submitted a few pieces, rated the other submissions, and attended a handful of meetings. I was pretty disappointed when the magazine didn’t get published–I’d always wanted to do the literary magazine in high school, but didn’t want to give up any of my electives to take it as a class. At the beginning of this year, I jumped at the chance to help Maggie and Giulietta out when they emailed the staff looking for people to help them at the activities fair. Since I was the only person to respond besides Kirsten, we became the new publicity head and submissions editor.
the banner I made for the activities fair now hangs in Maggie’s room over their fireplace
All year, we’ve been holding meetings with our staff members in preparation for the magazine launch. We did a LOT of writing workshops before we finally had enough submissions to regularly rate them as a group. Mid-February, the executive board (co-presidents Maggie and Giulietta, submission editor Kirsten, treasurer Cassidy, and me, the publicity head) took it upon ourselves to finish the design portion of the magazine. We took our top-rated works from the communal staff ratings system, quickly determined an order, divided up the pages, and set about formatting out magazine. After many late Wednesday nights in the Carpenter media lab, we finally ordered the magazine.
letter from the editors
We’d been planning our launch party since November, allowing ourselves to get overly excited about the “cocktail attire preferred” dress code and the snacks we’d serve whenever submissions were running low. We chose to dedicate this edition to Professor Jane Hedley, from whom Maggie, Kirsten, and I have all had the pleasure of learning. Her courses in poetics have greatly influenced us (and generations of other Mawrtyrs) as writers and critics, and her retirement this coming summer seemed to indicate that dedicating the magazine to her would be a perfect move. Of course, we also just wanted to invite her to the party.
the magazine!
snacks on snacks on snacks
On Saturday, we gathered in the Goodhart music room with magazine and snacks to share our triumphant creation with all of our friends, staff members, and contributors. Giulietta, a graduating senior, gave a great little speech about her time with the magazine before reading her “We Were No Match for the Chestnuts” out loud to us from the pages of the magazine. Maggie surprised us all with a few of their unpublished love poems, and I even shared one of mine. It was wonderful to see all of the staff and contributing artists who came out to support the magazine and enjoy some tasty treats with us. The absolute best part was when Professor Hedley asked all of us to autograph her copy of the magazine–I truly felt honored!
the executive board and professor Hedley!
Maggie reading one of their poems
Though producing a literary and arts magazine was a lot of work, it was mostly a fun-filled labor of love. I greatly admire all of the artwork printed in our magazine and on our blog, and I am honored to know that their creators are all my peers here at Bryn Mawr. Nimbus will be losing some key members next year, just as Bryn Mawr will be losing professor Hedley, but these losses will be accompanied by influxes of new growth and ways of thinking. I’m so proud to be a part of Nimbus, and I can’t wait to see what we receive next year. As the exec board likes to say, be creative, and spread the lit mag love!
cover art by Maggie