Bravura is Palomar College’s award-winning literary journal that features creative work of students and alumni.
The magazine staff is asking all students to consider submitting their poetry, art and other work in hopes of publication and prizes.
The literary journal began in the Spring of 1964 and is going into its 51 year of publication at Palomar. During this time the journal has won two awards from the Community College Humanities Association, a national nonprofit devoted to strengthening the humanities at community colleges. The first award was given in 2009 and the second in 2012, both placing second in the respective division.
The journal showcases the creative work of students at Palomar year after year and has found generous support from the President’s Association, Rocco Versaci, co-advisor of the journal, said.
The magazine is “a great facet of our culture and humanity here at Palomar,” Nathan Rodgers, a student editor on the publication, said. “The more people who are able to go out and share (their voices) through these outlets and the broader it reaches people, the better off we are in under- standing each other.”
Versaci, along with Professor Carlton Smith, have been advising the publication for over 16 years and oversee the course that produces the journal, English 137.
Students in the class are broken up into committees where they review and edit submissions to be featured within the publication. These committees consist of prose, poetry, visual arts, outreach, layout and public rela- tions.
The class will receive anywhere from 500 submissions that are the reviewed by editors in the course within a week before being sent out for production. About 90 percent of submissions are given during the week before the deadline, Rocco said.
The subjective process will be more of a discussion with each editor’s varying opinion on a given work, Rodgers said.
The class offers the students an opportunity to expand on their creative writing skills through the in-class workshops held and to gain skills in magazine editing and publication.
The Bravura staff encourages any student to consider submitting their work for publication in the academic literary journal, Rodgers said.
“You can be a creative person and have creative pursuits and be interested in pursuing something else,” Rodgers said.
The journal accepts year-round submissions of poetry, prose, photography and art in their yearly publication that publishes at the end of each spring semester. To be featured in the publication the deadline for submission is March 3. Bravura also features submitted work that doesn’t make it to print through their online companion of the publication on their website www.palomar.edu/english/Bravura.htm.
Awards will be given to published submissions during their annual gala at the end of the spring semester where first place winners will receive $100 in the three available categories: poetry, prose and visual art. Second and third place recipients will receive $50 and $25 respectively. Submissions can be emailed to rversaci@palomar.edu. Work can also be submitted directly to co-advisors Carlton Smith and Rocco Versaci in their offices located on the third floor of the Humanities Building. All past and current issues spanning the journals 51 years of publication can be viewed within the library.