Grab a Copy of the New Centripetal

The Centripetal Release party took place Tues. May, 5 at Plymouth House of Pizza (PHOP). Many Plymouth State University students and faculty members along with Plymouth residents celebrated the release of Centripetal Volume 13 Issue 2 along with the contributors, poets, and writers. 

PHOP supplied what seemed like endless amounts of delicious pizza and chicken wings. A silent auction was also held to win literature from PSU English professors such as Paul Rogalus, Liz Ahl and Joe Monninger. 

Many copies of the Centripetal were distributed for free to everyone who attended the release. All issues of Centripetal are free to all students and can be found in the bookstore, and other places throughout the HUB as well as campus. Once Centripetal was released the last Poets & Writers open mic took the stage to wrap up the night. All in all it was a splendid evening filled with lots of praise for the new issue, and applause from the open mic performances.

"I think that Centripetal is really important to Plymouth State. It gives student writers an outlet for their creative voices-and the students submitting can really feel proud about being accepted for publication in "Centripetal" because there's a lot of competition, and the quality level of that competition is very high," said Professor Rogalus.

Centripetal is Plymouth State's very own literary magazine put together by students, "Every step of the process of Centripetal is controlled by students, from submission callouts and guidelines, to editorial decisions on individual works, to business decisions with the printer on artwork and paper stock," said Rogalus.

"Centripetal gives PSU a chance to experience its creative voice; it is a show of our spirits to the world. Each issue, each volume, reflects a community and its attitude during that particular time in our school's history," said Prose Editor for Poets & Writers, Spencer Jackson.

There is never an exact theme to Centripetal, but every issue tends to have some kind of underlying theme, "There is no central theme for the journal because there are no limitations on submission genres or styles. This issue seems to be a bit darker in tone than a lot of recent issues; that may just reflect the state of our culture," said Rogalus.

"The submissions for this semester's Centripetal were very exciting in that they collectively reached a high level of depth, incorporating themes ranging from love to madness to a nice angsty touch that is complimented and represented in this issue's cover art," said Jackson.

Most issues tend to reflect the personality and artistic interests and values of the editorial staff.  Even though the works are chosen by two different levels of editorial boards, the editor in chief still makes many decisions which lead to the overall feel and style of the issue, this years editor in chief junior, Haley Sciola.

"I love reading all the submissions and finding common trends. I enjoy the process of putting it all together. It takes a lot of hands, hours, and nitpicking, but I always enjoy putting in the effort to create Centripetal. I refer to it as my baby, because whatever it needs, it gets from me," said President of Poets & Writers Sciola. 

There were a lot of submissions ranging from poems, artwork, and prose pieces, but not every submission could make it into Centripetal, "If you've taken the initiative to submit something that you've worked hard on, then be content. You took the risk, and that's awesome, if you get accepted, even more awesome. But better yet--if you don't get accepted, and you take that as motivation to improve and keep trying--not only does that warrant you mad awesomeness, but you're the one who's really winning," stated Sciola.

 "As an aspiring writer, I feel it›s crucial that students be given the opportunity to participate in the realm of competitive publication. Also, it gives writers a chance to express themselves among a community of their peers," said Jackson 

This spring issue of Centripetal is fierce; it contains a lot of dynamic writing and artwork.  Jackson continued, "Each issue, each volume, reflects a community and its attitude during that particular time in our school's history,".