According to the University website, there are 17 student publications. The website, however, is missing an important entry. For the past two years, a student press called Stethoscope has been working to not just edit and publish creative literary works, but to actually create the books themselves.
“Two years ago, Davy Knittle ’11 started Stethoscope as a flash chapbook series,” explained Stethoscope Editor Leia Jane Zidel ’12. “We would form a visual chapbook in Olin by having writers send in submissions, of all genres, under a penname. We put their work all over Olin during one night. We would create a ‘bookspace.’ But then, it became these books.”
Stethoscope now publishes student-written books, rather than chapbooks—pocket-sized pamphlets or booklets filled with poems, stories, and other fiction.
Stethoscope’s four editors—Zidel, William Miller ’12, Corey Dethier ’12, and Randyl Wilkerson ’12—plan to work one-on-one with just four students through the process of writing, editing, and creating a book.
The student press did not start out that way, however. From the very beginning, Stethoscope’s goal was to change the culture of writing at Wesleyan. Zidel said that even as recently as two years ago, opportunities for writers were slim, and there was little support from the campus community for student publication.
“People wanted to show their work,” Zidel said. “But it was a time when people were quiet and individual in their work ethic. Basically the only things you heard about were Hangman’s Lime and Ostranenie; I don’t even think Method was that big at the time. There were very few literary voices on campus.”
By allowing writers to submit anonymously, Knittle and his crew of underground editors ensured that authors could be open to the idea of seeing their work displayed. Writers, liberated from the fears of community judgment, did not have to adjust their writing styles or compromise their eccentricity.
“What I loved about Stethoscope at the beginning was that everything was submitted with a penname,” Zidel said. “It was freeing, because it opened up people to sending in their work and seeing it displayed. There is something romantic about guerrilla poetic warfare. I think as time has gone on, however, that is not as necessary. Publications need to be adapted to how writing has changed on campus. People are really proud of their work now. Campus writing has gotten a lot freer.”
The organization has drastically changed over its two years of existence, evolving to fit the different deficiencies in the University’s writing community. Now, it is focused less on being revolutionary and more on increasing awareness about long-form student work at Wesleyan.
“It became an opportunity for individual students to publish books that they would work on all year with an editor,” Zidel said. “We are looking to create a writing community and an active long-form process. I think a lot of the writing process is hidden. That’s kind of where the name came from; we are holding a stethoscope up to the writing that people are working on at Wesleyan, and seeing what people are working on over a long period of time.”
According to Zidel, the group has no mission statement, but all four editors wish to expand students’ writing opportunities.
“My personal mission is to get the word out about writing and make it a thing on campus and have people talk about it,” Miller said. “We don’t want it to be insular. I want to make it more community-based. We want to expand writing to a broader range of people at Wesleyan. We don’t want to have books that are hermetic and avant-garde that no one wants to read.”
Although the group tries not to be exclusive, at the end of the day only four writers will have the privilege of being published.
“For submissions, we asked for a project proposal and a short sample of their work, preferably in the genre of the book they want to do,” Miller said. “Also, books can be any genre—prose, a combination of genres, almost anything we can reproduce as a book.”
Unlike most other student publications, which require writers to submit their work for editing, in a process that allows them little say over the final product, Stethoscope editors work with writers from start to finish.
“Unlike other campus publications, the author gets 100 percent hand into the actual making of the book—including the layout and the design,” Miller said. “We are even teaching them how to use InDesign and other design tools. They come out of it knowing how to self-publish. It’s pretty intense, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime unique experience. That’s an opportunity that you never get as an undergraduate.”
Zidel agreed that Stethoscope’s efforts to introduce their writers to every step of the publishing process is the organization’s distinguishing feature.
“This is not an editors’ publication—that’s something Will said to me,” Zidel said. “We are a writers’ publication. So as far as editing, we are planning on meeting as editor and writer bi-weekly. The writers will submit a couple of poems or a short story they’ve been working on over a couple of weeks, and they will meet to talk about it. Having an editor can force you to be super active about your project, and not let it take a total backseat to your academics.”
The editors will even help their writers physically design and create their books.
“We are trying to make the books more beautiful,” Zidel said. “There will be a focus on formatting, book binding, and typography this year. It’s less about just the text and more about the entire process. We want to be able to put a lot of control in the hands of the writers in the way that a lot of writers don’t usually get. I think that’s the difference between now and what we did in the past.”
Zidel herself has experience in book binding, which she hopes will prove useful for the group.
“I have some great binding techniques with dental floss and thread, so we’ll be making some really good books together,” Zidel said.
The books, however, won’t be for mass production.
“As far as publishing, we have worked with a press in Middletown in the past,” Zidel said. “But we are looking to work with other presses in the area, to vary the forms of these books a little bit more and hopefully expand their artistic quality.”
Miller added that, in addition to actually creating books, they are looking to have more events and programs for their writers, editors, and the entire Wesleyan community.
“We want to run a book-making workshop open to the entire campus, have the authors read some of their work, maybe at Russell House, and have a gallery show at the end of the year,” Miller said. “People could have a chance to look at these books and talk to the writers about the process of making them.”
The editors said that they hope Stethoscope will pave the way for new kinds of student writing projects in the future.
“There is something beautiful about people becoming proud of their work and getting it out on campus,” Zidel said. “I think we are doing something new. Hopefully this will spark other movements on campus and next year we will see a bunch of new publications.”
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