Do you love publishing and creative writing? Why not join The Mercury? The Mercury Literary Magazine has been around since 1893, and it’s been published annually since. Many famous alumni, including Jerry Spinelli, have been editors or contributors to the past. The Mercury publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art.
Since it’s already into the spring semester, The Mercury is currently busy editing submissions and getting ready to print. If you know how to use InDesign or are interested in formatting magazines, you can still join the club. The Mercury usually begins taking new team members in the fall, where you can run to be an genre-editor and work with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or art. Students who would like to work on multiple editing teams are definitely encouraged to! Submissions in all genres are taken from October 1st to December 31st annually, and then in the springtime, editing teams decide which pieces should be included in the magazine. After some copyediting and magazine design, The Mercury quickly goes to print and is available by May.
If you’re interested in a career in editing or publishing, The Mercury is a fantastic extracurricular to add to your resume. You can learn how to copyedit, judge literary works, and use design and publishing software. These kind of skills are absolutely essential to learn if you want to eventually work in the publishing industry.
If you love writing creatively, The Mercury is the perfect place to get your start! There are $100 rewards for the best fiction, nonfiction, art, and poetry pieces that are published annually, and this kind of name recognition is very important with starting a writing career. In addition to the potential reward, pieces submitted in The Mercury aren’t owned by the magazine, meaning you’re free to submit your best work to other non-collegiate publications if you’d like. All work submitted into The Mercury is also published in print and online on our library’s service The Cupola, so you can show your family that you’re published and show your published work to potential employers.
The Mercury is a fantastic springboard for those interested in creative writing with ample opportunities to learn new skills and be published. If you’re interested in joining the magazine staff for next year, just email vegael01@gettysburg.edu.