lanthorn – Houghton STAR

By Isabella Bratton

Houghton’s student-run literary magazine, The Lantern, is distributing their first issue of the 2023 Fall semester this week – Sept. 25 to Sept. 29.

The Lantern gives Houghton students the chance to submit their artwork, short stories, and poetry to be printed. Themes from last year included: Creation, Journey, Greif, Hope and Sonnets, and Community. This issue’s theme is “Challenges.”

The process to create each issue takes a lot of time and effort.

One of The Lantern’s editors, Sophomore Lee James (‘26) states, “A lot of it isn’t very difficult; it’s more in terms of time it takes.”

James explained the process, saying that first the team decides on a theme for the issue. They send out an email asking for submissions, and wait a few weeks. After sorting through the submissions, the editors format it all into one document. The issue goes through a couple rounds of editing, and is then sent to be printed.

The role of the editors can vary as well. Some of them help run their instagram account [@h.u.lantern] such as James, who also helps with the formatting, submitting works when there are low student submissions, and coming up with ideas for the themes of the issues.

The team is also working on updating the Lantern website and Facebook page.

James explained that they take into consideration what the student body would be interested in when choosing the theme, and it can also depend on the season. Sophomore Warren Torraca (‘26), the newest member of The Lantern editing team, explained that they try not to repeat themes.

Sophomore Emma Dainty (‘26), has different roles as Head Editor. Some of these include filling out charters to be recognized as a club, submitting a print order, and dealing with budgeting and finance. She explained that her transition into the position took a lot of organizing. Dainty is doing her best to make it as easy as possible for the future Head Editors to transition into their job.

Someone doesn’t need to be an English or writing major to submit work to The Lantern. Torraca, a math major, previously submitted works as a student and recommends it to others who enjoy expressing themselves through literary art.

“It’s for anyone who enjoys literature, and it’s interesting to see people express themselves,” Torraca says.

Dainty also encourages anyone who has interest to submit something, even if it’s just work from past classes.

The Lantern’s first Fall 2023 issue has been distributed and can be found in various places around campus.★

The Lanthorn and the Drawing Board will be finishing up the year with some new events. The Lanthorn will be releasing a staff edition of the Lanthorn and will host a storytelling night. The Drawing Board will be ending this semester with a color issue for the first time in at least four years.

Both the editors of the Lanthorn, Megan Specksgoor and Hannah Hanover, as well as Patricia Powles, the editor of the Drawing Board, will be graduating at the end of this semester, and so new editors will be coming to take their place. Leah Doty, junior, will be replacing Powles as editor of the Drawing Board and the next editor of the Lanthorn has not be chosen yet. Applications for this position are available online through Survey Monkey, and they are due no later than Monday, April 15.

“She [Leah Doty] is going to be great,” said Powles.

The Drawing Board hopes that the color issue will be much different than the regular issues not only because it is in color, but also because it will hopefully be a larger in size.

The Lanthorn’s last publication this year will be an issue with all staff material; usually, The Lanthorn takes submissions from the student body and then as a staff chooses which pieces to publish. By publishing an all-staff issue, The Lanthorn hopes to show a different side of their publication.

“People doesn’t always realize that we have very creative and talented staff,” said Specksgoor.

As part of their year-end activities, The Lanthorn will also be hosting a storytelling night.

“We want to go back to the oral tradition,” said Specksgoor.

In looking ahead to the coming years, the current Lanthorn editors plan to encourage the new editors next year to start a website, which would offer the opportunity for creative writers at Houghton to get their work published to a larger audience.

A website could also open up Houghton to prospective students. Hanover said, “That way when prospective writing students and art students look at [the website] they see a venue for publishing.”

Hanover and Specksgoor hope for editors who share a similar vision for the Lanthorn next year: one of branching out and reaching all of Houghton’s community.

“We really want it to be less of a ‘here are twenty English majors on a pedestal’ kind of thing . . . we really want it to be more open so that everyone can feel included,” said Specksgoor.