‘Leonardo’ magazine calls for submission

By: Shaya Rogers, Staff Reporter

“Leonardo,” CNM’s annual literary and arts magazine, is accepting submissions from students through February, 2013, said “Leonardo” Faculty Adviser and full-time CHSS Instructor Patrick Houlihan.

The deadline for submissions is Feb. 2, 2013 and any CNM student can submit art, writing or pho­tography for possible publication in the magazine, he said.

“We encourage anyone who is writing poems, short stories or flash fiction — what­ever you’re writing, you can submit it. I’d love to see more art­work. I go by the art studios and the stu­dents do some phe­nomenal work, from sketching to painting to all kinds of forms and formats,” he said.

Liberal Arts Major Makayla Armijo said will be submitting paintings, poems and drawings to “Leonardo”.

She said she has been an artist for 10 years and a writer for five years. “Leonardo” is a great way to get her work published, she said.

“It’s a great experience to be published in any­thing, to see your work and see other people who might be interested in it,” she said.

Getting published within the community can be a challenge, but “Leonardo” creates oppor­tunity that otherwise might not have existed, said Armijo.

“When you have something to share, it’s really hard to get yourself out there, even amongst your peers. It’s hard to put it in people’s faces and I think this is a good way to do that,” she said.

There are three writ­ing groups at three differ­ent campus locations, and Houlihan is confident that students will be inter­ested in the opportunity to be published, he said.

“They aren’t con­nected to “Leonardo,” but just the fact that there are three writing groups that exist says there’s an interest and students with talent,” he said.

“Leonardo,” from sub­mission to editing to pro­duction, is created by stu­dent volunteers, he said.

“It looks very differ­ent year to year, the tone, the types of poems, the range of short stories. In my estimation that’s the way an annual should be — it should continue to change, evolve and reflect that year’s students, that year’s submissions, that year’s artists,” he said.

Since “Leonardo” has a high publication rate, students benefit from experience in publication, he said.

“The thing that I like about “Leonardo” is it’s fabulously inclusive. It has a greater than 50 percent submission to publication ratio, which is unheard of. It’s as high as it gets,” he said.

Publication in “Leonardo” is not only an entry into the art community, but a great achievement on a resume or college application, said Houlihan.

“Until you achieve some measure of credibil­ity, it’s pretty hard to get someone to pay attention to you other than start­ing locally, showing your stuff, getting a response,” he said.

Armijo said she would like to spread the word about “Leonardo” to help students reach their creative potential, she said.

“I didn’t know it was happening and I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for the poetry class I’m taking right now,” she said.

She is excited to submit and hopes to use “Leonardo” as leverage in her résumé.

“To get noticed in that way is a big deal for writ­ers and artists. It doesn’t take a college degree to be doing this kind of stuff, or to get published, and that’s exciting,” she said.

Since the student body is so diverse, their creativity clearly shows through the full color, glossy high quality maga­zine, he said.

“We have great cre­ative minds, a diverse range of experiences, styles, interests and the art they produce is really interesting stuff,” he said.

He enjoys working with students and is con­tinuously surprised and impressed by their level of determination, said Houlihan.

“It is a beautiful maga­zine; even if you’re not submitting. Just to read, to look at the art that is produced by CNM stu­dents, it is amazing to me, regularly. It is one of the joys of my life,” he said.

• Email submissions in digital format by Feb. 2, 2013 to Patrick Houlihan at houlihan@cnm. edu with the subject line “Leonardo”.
• Writers should send all submissions in a single document.
• Artists should submit all works digitally as a Photoshop, Illustrator or PDF file with a minimum 150dpi resolution.
• “Leonardo” will be published in April 2013 during National Poetry Month.