New Co-editors revitalize a withering publication.
Of the trinity of Houghton student publications that includes The Star, The Drawing Board, and The Lanthorn, it is the latter that is perhaps most foreign to students this year. In part, this is due to the case of the missing editorial staff and the resulting scramble for their replacement about halfway through last semester. Fortunately junior Essie Fenstermacher and sophomore Ava Bergen volunteered to take charge and revive the Lanthorn once again.
For Bergen, a sophomore English and communications major, the Lanthorn was an important part of her experience her first year, and the same goes for Fenstermacher. As a literary magazine that includes poetry, selections of prose, short stories, and more, the Lanthorn appeals to avid readers and writers alike. For writers, the Lanthorn is a “good space for writers to put themselves out there,” said Bergen, as well as being a practical and simple way to get feedback from their audience, other writers, and the editors themselves. Students who write more for leisure might enjoy the chance to see their name by something in print out there for all to see, but they also benefit from the ability to be anonymous. Anonymity, according to Bergen, affords writers a certain “freedom [they] don’t have in other areas,” the Lanthorn is a “safe space for somebody who wants to talk about something very uncomfortable or talk about controversial ideas.” Fenstermacher added that it is an outlet that fosters connection and offers people the chance to “put in their own input, or just come to it and find new ideas.”
More than another thing to pick up and read when you’re bored on campus, the Lanthorn’s mission is to engage the student body and to have them then engage each other. According to Bergen, “if the Lanthorn can spark conversations, spark ideas, spark somebody to think in a different way or to think of someone elses’ perspective, that would be really wonderful.”
With an ample budget, Bergen and Fenstermacher hope to publish quite a few issues this semester. The arrival of over 90 submissions over the course of a week and a half in the fall indicated to the editors that “people do want to write things, people are writing, and they already clearly had this material they submitted.” A trend they hope continues this spring.
In a world of where conversation is carried out in online comments, Facebook messages, and texts, Bergen thinks that it is “important for people to engage in actual conversations with each other, which isn’t to deride texts or Facebook, but I think you can’t underestimate the value of reading something on a page and taking the time to absorb that idea, that concept, and the effect that has on a person. If the Lanthorn can encourage that then I think we’ve accomplished our goal.”