Whether you are a writer, an artist, or photographer, as a student seeing your work published is already an honor, but seeing your published work win an award is an even bigger one.
Red Hyacinth, Mercy University’s student-run literary journal, has earned a “First Class” distinction in the 2024 Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines contest putting the campus publication in the national spotlight.
The REALM program contest, organized by the National Council of Teachers of English, publicly recognizes outstanding literary magazines produced by students with the support of their educators. REALM is designed to encourage all schools to develop literary magazines that celebrate the art and craft of writing.
Schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, US territories, Canada, and American schools abroad are eligible to submit their publications for evaluation.
This year, the competition drew schools in 46 states and five countries nominated 422 student magazine. 422 entries were drawn from institutions. Out of these, only 125 magazines were awarded the contest’s highest distinction, REALM First Class.
“In 2023, we were ranked ‘Excellent’. That was the first year I entered us into the contest. With the 2024 issue, we jumped up two rankings to ‘First Class,’ which is the top ranking we could receive,” Dr. Kristen Keckler said. “I’m very proud of my team of student editors as well as the artists and writers we featured in the issue.”
First published in 2018, Red Hyacinth is an annually published, literary magazine that showcases the diverse writing and visual art of Mercy University students and alumni. Red Hyacinth is produced through a collaboration of students in the English and Design & Animation programs within Mercy’s School of Liberal Arts, under the guidance of Dr. Kristen Keckler, English professor and faculty advisor.
“It’s giving students who publish in it, publication credit and the pride of seeing their work in print. It is also giving the student editors hands on job experience because it is more than a club. It’s a job.” Keckler said.
Student editors from the Departments of Literature & Language and Communication & the Arts work together on everything from the editorial decisions, conceptual development, design, and production.
Through a blind-review process, they select original student and alumni submissions in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and art.
This gives students the unique opportunity to engage in the full editorial and publishing process while showcasing the creative voices of the Mercy University community.
The story behind Red Hyacinth is a beautiful homage to Valerie Lewis, a former creative writing professor at Mercy and a Ph.D. candidate in creative writing who passed away in 2013 who’s favorite flower was a Hyacinth. Lewis had published original pieces in over 30 journals, Keckler and Lewis’s family knew that she would have loved having a literary and arts journal dedicated to her memory.
This was made possible through such generosity of the friends and family of Lewis who have contributed to her Memorial Fund at the college over the years.
Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Peter West spoke on the honor as well.
“Red Hyacinth is one of the signature cocurricular initiatives in the School of Liberal Arts, offering students the opportunity for hands-on editing and layout work, while also giving our writers and artists the chance to launch into the workforce with publications to their names,”
“Kristen Keckler has done a brilliant job of building the magazine and leveraging it to help students connect their classroom learning with a range of career-oriented skills. Congrats to Kristen and the Red Hyacinth team!” West said.
None of this would have been possible without the tremendous help of the student staff members part of the design team: Chloe Mackey, Sunnie Bruno, Joelle Bump, and Nelson Orellana who took time to share their experiences working on the journal.
“Red Hyacinth is the best thing to work on for your portfolio. I feel like I’ve definitely gotten to know the students way more just through writing. the art, the poetry.” Mackey said.
This sentiment of connection with the students seems to resonate across the team as well.
“This semester brought us three (staff) together a lot too. Like having this in common, in class, after class, talking about it. I feel like we’re a little bit of an unlikely trio. So it’s cool that this brought us together in a way. Super grateful for that, it’s been a very rewarding experience.” Bruno said.
Bump also shared a similar feeling of newfound understanding, but from a different perspective.
“Even though I don’t know any of these people personally, I got to see another side of the student body I just walk by every single day. I’ve enjoyed reading what people go through and it’s been a little emotional. And then it’s nice to turn it into something on beautiful on paper with design.” Bump said.
And for Orellana, this journal took on even deeper meaning, touching on the power of writing to create connection.
“I always say that writing is the most human thing in the world and I always feel that sense whenever I am working on a project like this. It is just in us humans to take something and make it more and pass it along. And I think that’s always been the spirit of this journal. The unfortunate passing of Valerie Lewis gave us this ability for us as the students to give ourselves a voice and a platform.” Orellana said.
Additional staff for the 2025 issue include: Bridget Gogliettino, Bilgilio Martinez, Brianna Mayol, and Amy Romero.
This year’s issue of Red Hyacinth will have a PDF on the website. This will give everyone the opportunity to read and share the work with friends and family!
In the future, Keckler and her wonderful student editors hope to continue submitting the journal to contests, winning high honors, and want to give a applause to all the students who have shown such courage to share their work and personal stories.
When the time rolls around for each new issue to come out, Keckler and her team of student editors hold a release party to celebrate another successful year of rounding up fresh talent. This year’s tentative date for the release party is May 13th.
If anyone has any questions or submissions please reach out to [email protected]!
Feel free to check out the Red Hyacinth website as well!
