Ranelle Irwin | Contributing Writer

As the deadline approaches on March 1 for submitting to Buena Vista University’s literary and fine arts magazine, FACES, student editors want to remind BVU students that the opportunity to publish their creativity is available regardless of your experience with the artistic side of BVU.

Dean of the School of Communication and Arts and Professor of English Dr. Annamaria Formichella-Elsden says that to submit to FACES, “You don’t have to know the editors or be an English major. You can come from any discipline and submit.”

FACES is currently accepting work for its 2016-2017 edition of the magazine. They accept any form of writing under 1,500 words as well as photography, images of original art, and other creative submissions as well. Submissions can be sent to [email protected].

Senior Kacee Baker, one of the editors for this year’s publication, states that in the coming weeks, FACES will have monthly meetings for creative writing, a poetry party for National Poetry Month on April 6, and a launch party for the 2016-2017 edition in May.

Elsden especially encourages students studying literature and fine arts to submit to small literary publications such as FACES.

“Most artists want an audience, and when you’re published you know someone is seeing your work,” she said.

It’s not just the BV community that enjoys the work for the magazine; admissions counselors show prospective students and parents the publication that FACES puts out. Copies of the magazine are distributed to different offices on campus, and the library gets a few copies every year for people to read.

FACES began in 1995 as a writing group on campus that would meet every Sunday to create work which they would later publish each spring. Elsden took over as the sponsoring faculty member of the magazine in 1999 and has been involved with FACES ever since.

The organization has its own share of mysteries and unanswered questions behind it. Many people ask what “FACES” means or where it came from, but even Elsden herself doesn’t know the origin of the name. The mascot of FACES is a lemur who appears several times in the cover art for the magazine. One particular scandal occurred with the 2000-2001 edition of the magazine, where a student posed naked in the forum for the cover.

For more information about FACES, submitting to this year’s edition, or the monthly creative writing sessions, contact [email protected] or [email protected].