The Halloween Issue

Issue #6: Have you seen our front cover? It's beautiful and Halloween-themed. You know how much we like Marilyn, right? Here she is, in all her zombie-splendor.

The front and back covers were chosen by a student vote following our Fall Cover Design Contest. The winning designer is Nicholena Moon, '12, who also applied to be our Director of Design, and was accepted. You can see more of her designs when Issue #6 premieres.

Hey, it's Fall Break!

As you all on our lovely e-mailing list know, it's time to submit! Today, 10/11, is the last day to submit anything new, but you've got until Wednesday to send it your changed/edited pieces.

ACTV is also opening up their new show AC Lit to Overkill writers exclusively. If you would like to read your work in a broadcast medium, send your work to actv@allegheny.edu or lopresk@allegheny.edu and they'll put it on a teleprompter for you to read, to the beat of your own bongo drums. I guess, I mean, I don't know what will happen.

Issue #6 material is looking absolutely fantastic, thanks to all of you!

Look for your published copy on or around Halloween!

Cover Design Contest

Many of you have been asking how to get more involved with the Overkill design without taking on a big position -

THE OVERKILL FALL COVER DESIGN CONTEST

here's a fantastic opportunity! Art, photography, collages, graphic prints, etc. are all happily accepted. There's no theme to abide by, but since our next issue is planned to print around Halloween, maybe some dark and macabre images could be a helpful starting point. The winning designers will be recognized in the Editor’s Letter of Issue #6. In addition to the use of their covers, both winners will also receive $25 gift certificates to the Allegheny College Book Store! How useful at the beginning of the school year!

Just send your bmp or gif digital submissions to acoverkill@gmail.com.

The date for open submission starts...now! The deadline is Saturday, September 5, 2009. Have fun with this...remember that the covers are the first things people see when distribution time comes. Students, professors, administrators and tours with prospective students will see them!

So, let's show them Allegheny get can graphic.

The Future of Overkill

I'm exceptionally proud of how far Overkill has come this year. Our advisor, Professor Kirk Nesset, is very proud as well. In addition to singing our praises to his fellow faculty members and classes, Nesset nominated Overkill for the Outstanding Innovation Award at the 2009 Allegheny College Leadership Conference. We did not win (lost to the Tri-Delts' *super innovative* pancake breakfast) but it was a great honor to be nominated. Additionally, Allegheny Student Government has allotted us $400 more for the upcoming semester, which means no more financial trouble putting out at least two issues without having to fundraise.

Finally, I'm happy to say Issue #5 was released on Springfest weekend despite many setbacks (i.e. no money in the fund, Erin's printer and Issue #5 drafts stolen, and the Print Shop manager going on several vacations). Art director Kevin Brazda stepped up immediately to design the cover in Erin's place, creating a marvelous carnival-themed print. The feedback we got for the issue has been overwhelmingly great and I'm so psyched to keep going strong.


On a sadder note, Overkill has lost some important members in just the last two months. Erin relinquished her position at the beginning of April, Emily dropped out of Allegheny in mid-April, and Anna has transferred back home to a Minnesota school. We are sorry to lose them all.

The up-side of losing these members is the openings of two director positions and one editor position for the coming year:
Director of Design
Director of Organization
Editor of Non-fiction

We look to fill these positions immediately when school starts up again, preferably not to first-years. This is pretty exciting, because it means fresh ideas, different material, and maybe some new faces! I will post an application on this blog and also e-mail it out later in the summer.

Finally, I will be opening up the blog and Twitter passwords to the entire editor team, as it should have been from the very beginning. The web site apparently can't be updated until we're back at school to talk with Murray Hall, but everything else will be delightful!

Yours, Katrina

subscriptions

yes, you should really sign up for a subscription, you should really sign up for many of them, maybe nine or ten. i've already typed a very long email about it, so that's that, but if you have questions, feel free to email the account, acoverkill@gmail.com, and i will promptly get back to you.

i swear, this is a really sweet deal, and really good thing. please help us grow. and you'll get copies to keep and treasure and call all your own. and directly to your mailbox, no fuss!

this will be in full effect come january.

also, as a side note, thank you to all the submittors for this upcoming issue! really, y'all came through again, and it's going to be great.

erin

If we're juvenile...then I don't wanna grow up

Dearest Overkillers,

I wonder if anyone reads this overblog, but regardless if people do or not, I write this with a furrowed brow. Today, among the many cheerful, enthusiastic responses regarding the latest issue of our beloved OK, I received one unhappy one via text message that went a little something like this (and "by a little something," I mean exactly):

"Who edits Overkill?"
Me: No one. We leaves mistakes in so it's up to authors if they care or not. Part of the whole free form deal.
"I don't know. Its an interesting concept but i think a lot of the writing is juvenille. It doesn't seem like its inspiring great writing yet ya know"
Me: Haha we don't take ourselves seriously enough to aim for inspiring great writing. then we'd have to censor offensive pieces which we love.
"I was curious who charles victor szasz is"
Me: (thinking) Oh my god.

Okay. I really don't want to use this blog as a tool to belittle anyone in any sense, but I feel like such criticism should be addressed when we make ourselves very clear about what we're about. We reserve the right to protect the identities of all our writers and we will never violate that right to maintain that trust. Our writers produce some controversial pieces and some offensive pieces and might otherwise not submit such wonderful writing if they had to sign their names. I don't think it's cowardly to use a pen name or pseudonym; I think it's smart to give the campus something to think and talk about without having a name to point fingers at. This makes people uncomfortable and "livid," as we've seen with our last issue. So point fingers at us. We publish it. Freedom of speech shouldn't come with an mandatory name tag, and we absolutely accept angry or offended responses. But don't ask us to reveal author identities, whether out of anger or curiosity.

#2. We don't edit pieces. If stuff is misspelled, then it's on the author. If something is typed up passionately or angrily, then yeah, there'll be mistakes. If the author cares to fix it, then he or she will. If the author does not, then that's how it goes. IT'S FREEFORM!

Also-- we don't inspire great writing? We inspired WRITING, and I think that's a damn big deal on this campus. I immediately regretted my response about not taking ourselves seriously enough, because we do, and we've worked hard to get funding and publicity and writers, but I don't want people going around thinking that we want to be the next Allegheny Literary Review. Can't there just be expression? Can't there just be satire and photography and poetry and a means to show it? I happen to think the writing in our magazine is superb, creative, and human. And, granted these criticisms were texted to me, I think the argument for juvenile writing is quite undermined by the fact that this person failed at contractions and misspelled juvenile (and has never contributed anything...so show me "great writing!").

All this being said, please don't think we don't want constructive criticism. I want it, I love it, I need it, baby, oh yeah. But I can't respect criticism that doesn't consider what we stand for and what we are.

On a happier note, I hope ya'll are enjoying Issue Numero Tres!

All my love,
Katrina

issue #3 is out and about!

they're out! they're out! as of approximately 3:00 today. be looking for pictures for proof, and a more detailed hit-list of where we put them. still have to be a little creative, (and honestly, hopefully we'll always be), with only 150 copies... in the foliage of pelletier... read by the art-sculpture men at both the top and the bottom of the first, main staircase of the c.c. ...

also, if you're having difficulty stumbling upon them, because really they just seem to be evaporating- which is wonderful- you still can get ahold of me, emily, or katrina with approximately $2.00, and we can give you one to have as your very own...

otherwise, well, good job all.

(here are a few notes, i suppose: layout being my responsibility- and honor!- the print quality is a little- but really, barely noticeble- off... i don't know. also, page 13, you can barely see them, but i promise you can see them when i made it, and also on my computer, those little fuzzy strips? well, those are little cartoon women stripping)

go get it! send in submissions! deadline november 11! we take everything as long as it's not hateful! --ERIN

So today we braved the walk all the way up to the Oddfellows print shop to pick up this months mock-up copy. It looks so amazing! Everyone did a fantastic job, so get excited for them to being to appear around campus!

That being said upon OK-ing it (no pun intended...) the very nice man who works there (Mark I believe??) told us that they might not be ready until the end of this week. So we once again must learn the virtue of patience...and here I had thought that we had successfully weathered the storm of administrate red tape!

Despite all of this, you should begin to see Issue three sprinkled around the campus soon...look for it in Mcky's booths, in the lib (check the trees!) and wherever else we feel deserves a little student voice.

Oh, and one more thing.....
submit submit submit!

See you at the next meeting!
Emily

some files for your folder

so, there is a november calendar. i'm sorry that it's sideways, but you can print it out and pin it on your wall.


additionally, and i guess i should have said this before, because the website was before- so, well, WE HAVE A WEBSITE, and, well, that's cool, and i made it, and it could be much improved if i new any sort of real coding, so if you'd like to help, i'd like that very much. email me, just me, at caskeye@allegheny.edu, or email the overkill account, acoverkill@gmail.com.


so, the issues will be online, and the third issue is already online (as are the first two), though it's not out in print, but because it's taken longer than expected (family emergency for man at print shop, so he was out for a week, and so no printing was done), we thought you deserve a sneak peek. it'll be spectacular in print, in hard-copy. really, great job all, and thank you for submitting. be looking for it all over campus hopefully by tuesday at the latest. only 150 to be printed, though, we were given just $300 by ASG the first go-around, but we'll be back, and we've also got to consider ad.s maybe, and applying for grants, fundraising. (if you have ideas...)


alright, that's really enough from me for now. deadling is november 11, make sure to contribute! --ERIN

ready, set

so, the whole idea, or the whole hope, is that we can find a way to make this little publication project of ours more interactive, to make it a little less "ours", a little less insider-based... being a monthly is nice, but it doesn't necessarily allow it to be a conversation (though certainly can spur conversation)... i don't know, i'm rambling, and i'm really just rather ready for this to be up & working. so- use this for discussion purposes. plans for articles, reviewing articles, etc. and as editors, we'll use this to post important things, like calendars, as well as make announcements... etc. to be accessible, & not just to our email list.--ERIN