WKU News

WKU’s fine art magazine Zephyrus is currently accepting submissions for the 2021 edition until Friday, February 19. Zephyrus is a collection of WKU undergraduate students’ artwork, poetry, short stories, and creative essays selected by an all-student staff. Submitters and readers in 2021 may notice some changes from previous editions due to the pandemic and a new faculty advisor.

Due to COVID-19, all submissions must be sent in electronically. In previous years, students handed paper copies of their work to the English Office. The faculty advisor anonymized each submission and passed them to every member of the staff to read and rate. If a staff member recognized a work, they were factored out of the rating. The rating and selection process will not change for this edition except for the move to digital copies. Instead of the English Office, students must now submit to the magazine’s dedicated email address zephyrus@wku.edu. To read the exact submission guidelines, view the cover sheet here. The electronic submission process will likely continue for future editions.

Zephyrus also has a new faculty advisor, Dr. Nancy Dinan. For the first year of her position, Dr. Dinan is largely following the processes established by the previous faculty advisor Dr. David LeNoir. Thus, readers will not notice many differences in the 2021 edition. Dr. Dinan does not seek to change the magazine exceedingly, so future Zephyrus editions will still be printed physically with similar formats and page counts.

Dr. LeNoir trusts the new leadership for Zephyrus. He said, “I am very confident in passing Zephyrus to Dr. Dinan. The way she is taking on the responsibility shows the devotion it requires.” Dr. LeNoir also welcomes any changes Dr. Dinan might make. He said, “The consistency of previous editions is reliable, but change is good, too. A new advisor might be more open to these changes.” Despite these changes, Dr. LeNoir reassures students that Zephyrus will always be a student-led and student-submitted publication, a sentiment Dr. Dinan shares.

Dr. Dinan is eager to begin overseeing Zephyrus. She enjoys editing magazines and was a managing editor of the Iron Horse Literary Review. She was impressed by Zephyrus and said, “It’s a beautiful magazine, and the quality of work is amazing.” Based on her teaching experiences at WKU, Dr. Dinan is hopeful for this year’s submissions. “I’ve been really excited about the Creative Writing program at WKU,” she said. “I am pleased by how engaged students are with creative writing, and I am looking forward to seeing that engagement transfer to Zephyrus.”