Daedalus is West Chester University’s literary magazine. Founded in 1972, Daedalus allows students to showcase their work. The club accepts prose, poetry, short stories and photography among other things. Daedalus also offers writers the chance to get their work published as well as improve in their work as a writer. The editors on the editing staff are given the chance to put their skills to practical use.
Daedalus’ schedule is broken up into two semesters. Fall semester is spent getting to know who you are on the editing staff with. The board always consists of the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. The rest of the staff consists of the editors and Dr. Kristine Ervin is the current faculty adviser.
Once spring semester hits, we hit the ground running. Submissions begin to pour in and members of the club are given packets of submissions to work through and edit. At the meetings everyone comes together to discuss what they think about each individual work and whether they vote yes or no for it to be showcased in the final Daedalus magazine.
All of the submissions to Daedalus are completely anonymous. The person who receives the submission at our email does not get to vote in order to remove any bias.
In the coming weeks Daedalus and the Creative Writing club will be cosponsoring an open mic reading at the Local Yoga café in downtown West Chester. Daedalus is also sponsoring a reading that will take place in the Quad in response to the recent protesters that have been coming to WCU’s campus. The club is going to invite writers to read poetry and sing among other things in order to divert attention away from the group.
Since these dates haven’t been finalized yet, keep an eye out in the future for information around campus and feel free to check out the club’s Facebook page. In addition to these events, Daedalus will be creating chalk murals around campus in order to gain more attention while attracting writers and editors.
Daedalus offers any of the students that get published in the magazine to come to the reading held at the end of the spring semester to read their work aloud. All students and staff of WCU are also invited to come and listen to the authors. Refreshments are served at the event and copies of the journal sit scattered on the tables for anyone who wants to pick a copy up and take it home with them. A cash prize is awarded to the best submission in each category. The categories are usually prose, poetry and artwork.
As the treasurer for Daedalus I have to admit that it is extremely rewarding to see all of the authors that comprise the journal reading their work at the end of the year is very fulfilling. Getting to see the pride on someone’s face and knowing that you were part of a decision that changed this person’s life is incomparable.
Daedalus’ next meeting will be held on Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. in Main Hall 215. Come out and learn more about what we do! If you are interested in submitting some of your work, please email us at WCUDaedalus@gmail.com. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Hannah Tollen is a fourth-year student majoring in English writings track with a minor in journalism. She can be reached at HT823371@wcupa.edu.