Preview of the Soundings Unveiling

On April 14, the Soundings Literary and Visual Arts Journal will be hosting their annual Unveiling for their published journal. During winter break and the early spring semester, students, alumni, staff and faculty at Oklahoma Christian University submitted their written and visual work to the Soundings journal. 

The Unveiling will highlight the chosen submissions and Oklahoma Christian’s creative community.   

Senior Editor Ann Magner has overseen the submissions while planning for the Unveiling. 

“The Unveiling is our last event and it is kind of what we work towards the whole semester because by that point, we are going to have our journals and that is where we unveil the journals,” Magner said. 

Supervisor and Assistant Professor of English, Nathan Shank, said he has thoroughly enjoyed Soundings’s progress this semester. 

“I’ve had a lot of confidence in Soundings Editor Ann Magner this year, so I’ve been fairly hands-off the journal itself,” Shank said. “Ann did well to organize the staff, keep to a budget, and produce what I believe will be one of our finest issues yet.”

The published journal will contain poetry, prose, photography and many unique forms of visual arts. 

“I think our journal is pretty unique this year,” Magner said. “I don’t want to spoil it, but it has some elements I feel like I haven’t seen in the past Soundings journals, so I am excited for that.”

Senior Jade Warren is on the Soundings staff as the PR and events director. She said the journal is different because the submissions are unique from year to year. 

“Unveiling highlights the people featured in the journal that year,” Warren said. “Because of this, Unveiling changes as the people featured in the journal change. That is one of the great things about Soundings: No journal or Unveiling is like any other.”

Shank said the coronavirus has not stopped the creativity from students at Oklahoma Chrisitian. 

“Coming out of COVID-19 has reinvigorated Soundings with new life,” Shank said. “Student writers and artists have a lot of emotions that are turning into beautiful works of written and visual art, and that fruition will be inspiring to see.”

Magner said she is excited for all the creativity the submissions have shown and will continue to show. 

“I would wish for Soundings to keep finding more ways to reach out to the creative community,” Magner said. “We do fundraisers and then we had a poetry workshop this year, but I would wish for Soundings to be more involved in the community on campus.”

Warren said she has seen Soundings grow significantly during this submission season. 

“This is a sign our organization is constantly growing,” Warren said. “Another great example is the amount of interest we had in the journal this year. We had so many more submissions than I imagined. It was really amazing to see.” 

Warren said the Soundings journal will showcase the creative community on campus and all their various voices. 

“It gives me a lot of hope for the future of the journal and I believe we will continue to increase in applications for intern and staff positions, as well as the number of submissions,” Warren said. “More people are becoming familiar with what Soundings is, and this will greatly help with the continuation of the journal.”

Shank said it is always exciting to see everyone’s work in physical print form.

“I hope students see Soundings as a way to express who they are in creative ways,” Shank said. “It’s also a chance to develop a community around something positive.”

The journal will be shared with the campus community after the Unveiling. For more information on Soundings, check out their website and Instagram page @ocsoundings.