IUPUI genesis Magazine Begins Return to Normalcy

Last spring, genesis Magazine celebrated their 50th anniversary. The literary and art magazine features pieces that are reflective of the creative minds on IUPUI’s campus.

They celebrated their latest release party on Wednesday.

Sarah Layden, the faculty advisor of genesis since 2016, expressed that the magazine has seen a lot of fluctuations in the quantity and types of content submitted to the magazine due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had the big 50th party in the spring, which was a great event but it was also the first time a lot of people were in a big crowd, so we’ve had a lot of big social changes,” Layden said. “I think that’s reflected nicely in this fall 2022 cover, because you’ve got this illustration of somebody on their phone, presumably getting all these updates that are reflected behind them, and it’s about masks and Covid and all these other things just looming.”

The cover, titled “Dissociation”, was created by Danielle Harrell who is a junior majoring in Drawing and Illustration. Harrell used acrylic, watercolor, alcohol markers, collage, and colored pencil to create the piece.

Harrell reflected on the focus of displaying the attachment to technology that so many people faced throughout COVID-19, explaining that the shape and lighting of the piece itself was meant to resemble a phone screen.

“Dissociation was created with the intention to reflect my experience for the two-or-so years of the pandemic,” Harrell said. “I wanted there to be a contrast between the person and the city, to depict both the internal and external struggle and noise simultaneously, and to establish a visual disconnection between the two. I decided to make the piece monochromatic using only blue to emphasize the intensity of sadness I felt during those years.”

Despite the decrease of content in the past few years due to COVID-19, Layden expressed that the high quality of the content has stayed consistent, which she attributes to the vulnerability student artists show through sharing and submitting their work.

“So really this issue was about student lived experiences,” said Shannon Kucaj, one of the managing editors of genesis. “It featured a wide range of emotions like grappling with questioning frustration, love, hope, and loss. A great thing about genesis is that we see what students are saying in the moment and what we’re all kind of feeling right now, so it’s really a lovely body of work because it’s very telling of the time.”

Monica Simmons, the other current managing editor of genesis, expressed appreciation for being able to come together and celebrate the release of this issue.

“I think the top thing for me is giving students a platform to express themselves, to explore these big questions and ideas in a creative way, to try to find that meaning and uplift their voices with the magazine,” Simmons said.

For the first time in the history of the magazine, genesis will be accepting submissions outside of IUPUI. The magazine is partnering with the Ray Bradbury Center at IUPUI to release a special issue of work inspired by Bradbury. Anyone who lives in the United States and has never been published in a literary magazine before is eligible to submit. Genesis will be releasing their normal issue in spring along with this collaboration. Submissions for this special edition are due January 2, 2023.

Ashley Wilson is a sophomore double majoring in creative writing and journalism at IUPUI. She is a writer and photographer who covers campus and culture for The Campus Citizen.

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