A group of students affiliated with OU's international literary magazine has decided to create a new publication for students that will debut next semester.
The student publication, called The NORM, will be available online and in magazine format next semester, senior Cara Alizadeh, an editor and one of the creators of the publication, said.
The publication is sponsored by World Literature Today, an international literature magazine based at OU.
The NORM will feature works from OU students in a broad range of mediums from poetry to short stories, essays and more, to digital art, illustrations, videos and comics, Alizadeh said. Although they do have guidelines for formatting submissions, the actual content and subject of submissions is entirely open to whatever people want, said junior Tyler Christian, president of the student advisory board for World Literature Today.
“We wanted to have an outlet for people who want to express themselves if they have anything they’d (want to) talk about, because we don’t have any limitations on the subject … If you have anything you’d wish to say about anything, this is your chance to be involved with other like-minded individuals,” Christian said.
Alizadeh and Christian met through the editor of World Literature Today in October because they shared the desire to create a student-run publication. Alizadeh is an intern at the magazine through a class and has met other people from her class who were interested in helping, she said.
Christian, along with sophomore Kadey Bernhardt, is on the student advisory board for World Literature Today and has met people willing to work on The NORM through that as well, he said.
Being on the student advisory board, Christian and Bernhardt have had to read issues and give their feedback and critiques, giving them skills that they have been able to apply to their jobs at The NORM, Bernhardt said.
“We have seen from example what works and what doesn’t,” Bernhardt said.
They now have a team of about a dozen people with all kinds of backgrounds, but a similar goal, Alizadeh said. Anyone that is interested in working on The NORM is welcome, regardless of experience, Bernhardt said.
“We decided upon a name, The NORM, (because it) represents the normality and the connection here in Norman,” Alizadeh said. “We want it to be more than a collection of individual works. We want it to be emblematic of … what it's like here in Norman in this time.”
So far, they’ve had approximately three dozen submissions of a wide variety, such as prose in the author’s native language and in English, photography from a study abroad trip and commentary on aspects of pop culture in the author’s life, Alizadeh said.
It hasn’t been decided how frequently The NORM will be published, but there has been talk about having themes or prompts for each issue, such as social issues or artist collaboration, Christian said. They also want to get the word out in fun and creative ways, like yelling positive words at people in the South Oval, copying the approach of the preachers that are often seen in the South Oval, Christian said.
