National recognition

Seven UTRGV students whose work was published in Gallery magazine have won eight national awards from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Britt Haraway, a creative writing assistant professor and Gallery adviser, explained the magazine is produced by students taking his English 3350 Gallery course.

Haraway said the students gather in January.

“And, then we try to get as many submissions as we can,” he said.

Students in Haraway’s class form several committees to select the works published in the magazine. In this year’s issue, the staff consisted of 20 students, and five of them were editors.

Gallery is published every summer and funded by student fees.

The process of selection is anonymous. When works are submitted, names are removed so there is no bias while selecting the pieces.

“We remove the names of the authors, or the photographers. … They really come in anonymously,” Haraway said. “That helps us guard against just publishing our friends.”

The magazine participates in only two competitions, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Circle Awards and the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association contest.

Haraway submitted the works in July to the Gold Circle Awards program, and received the results Oct. 26:

–José Suarez, first place in Portfolio of Illustrations

–Alexandra Mendoza, first place in Typography and second place for Use of Typography on One Page or Spread,  “Unstable + Rebels”

–Joy Perez, second place in the Essay Category, “A Big Brother’s Arms”

–Jessica Garza, second place in Illustration: Computer-generated,  “Frozen Time”

–Amanda Pena, third place in Humor, “Nicole’s a Nice Name”

–Christopher Castillo, honorable mention for Humor, “Menudo”

–Anakaren Suarez, honorable mention for Single Illustration: Hand-drawn, “Eccentric Life”

Studio art junior José Suarez said the pieces he submitted were made with mostly paper and colored pencils.

“The way I had done my pieces were very trial and error,” Suarez said. “I was taught a bunch of techniques and skills that helps me reach that level of smoothness, or texture, or detail and whatnot.”

Mendoza, a graphic design senior who was the magazine’s art and design director, said she focused on design and placement to create her work.

“We opened a call for artists,” she said, referring to the magazine submissions. “Also, it was for everything, for visual arts, photography, poetry, everything. We kept that application open for every student to actually submit what they wanted, or what they thought was their strongest work.”

Suarez said his style depends on his emotions and he goes by eras.

“It sounds cliché … but I get inspired by either current events or personal issues that I have dealt with,” he said. “And, I like to connect color and incorporate a lot of it to convey that kind of emotion.”

Suarez said he does it subconsciously and that it is tricky for him to do it.

Mendoza said she does not have a specific style and it varies.

“It rotates towards what it is that I am working on,” she said.

For Gallery, Mendoza said she combined her personal style with what would look best with the works in the magazine.

“I like to experiment, play around with different styles,” she said.

Haraway said he didn’t let the students know they were nominated, and when he knew the winners, he emailed them right away.

Suarez said it was a huge shock when he won.

“I haven’t competed in a long time,” Suarez said. “So, if anything, it made me feel very nostalgic because in high school we would compete a lot. … Hearing this made me feel … accomplished.”

Mendoza said hearing about the awards was a great way to end working for this magazine issue.

“It was exciting because we put a lot of work into this,” she said. “Also, the editors, the class, we worked very hard on this issue through last semester. Even after the class was over, we met a little.”

Mendoza said magazine members worked on the issue over the summer.

Gallery is accepting submissions for next year.

“I believe it’s a really great opportunity,” Mendoza said. “Many students don’t know that by submitting, they get a chance to actually participate in these type of competitions. Even the actual experience of having your work published in a magazine is pretty cool.”

Haraway invites students from all majors and both campuses to submit their works to the magazine at gallery.submittable.com/submit.