History
Cellar Roots, the literary and visual arts journal of Eastern Michigan University
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"This is the first 'Cellar Roots.' We at the magazine hope that it will be one of many; each future issue being a representation of a continuing desire on the part of the magazine's people to give creative students an outlet for their work. Why the name 'Cellar Roots?' Because Eastern Michigan is an institution whose students come from both the largest urban centers and the smallest towns. Any look at the student directory will show the diverse origins of the people on our campus. Students with these varying backgrounds should have a magazine who name has something in common with all. The roots symbolize that deep growth and natural experience that is creativity. The cellar is the man made thing that comes closest to the roots. Whether a building is a skyscraper or a farm house, that one part of it is always common and nearest to the earth."
-Warren Brown, 1971 Editor-in-Chief
About Cellar Roots
Since 1971, Cellar Roots has been annually publishing student poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and art in all mediums. The purpose of the journal is to provide students with a high-quality vehicle for publishing works of art and writing. Since its inception, Cellar Roots has come a long way: from publication on newsprint to award-winning design concepts. We are funded by a small budget of university endowments and helped through donations and advertisements, and we are governed by the Student Media Board of Eastern Michigan University.
Cellar Roots has received numerous Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) Pacemaker awards for content as well as book design. The competition for these awards includes Ivy League universities like Harvard. The Pacemaker is the highest honor available to college magazines and is considered the equivalent of receiving a Pulitzer. The EIC annually nominates entries from the book to Pushcart and the O. Henry Prize Stories for award consideration. The book is perfect bound for high quality, and its contents submitted to a jury process made up of faculty, writers and artists.
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Submitting to Cellar Roots provides many benefits for students. Eastern students can submit their work at no cost, allowing them the chance not only to be published but also to have their work exhibited in a gallery for the book release. The journal has helped students to find their "voice" and get published for the first time; getting published is highly recommended by the art and writing faculty. Publishing and exhibiting offers experience in the submission process and can help students get a job when they graduate. Since 2006, students have been able to submit their work quickly and easily through the online submission process on the Cellar Roots website.
Cellar Roots provides a bridge between creativity and the opportunity to get published. "[Cellar Roots] gives students the sense of being in a community of writers, which is one of the hardest things to come by in the real world.... Student contributors are an asset to the entire University when they win awards for the interesting written and design work that goes into the journal. My guess is there are very few university-related journals in the country that can compete with it," said Jeff Parker, EMU creative writing professor, at the 35th anniversary release.
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To celebrate the year's book release, Cellar Roots holds events on campus to complement its release reception and two-week gallery event. For the 35th anthology, Cellar Roots sponsored a week of events including a discussion about pop culture and the "literary canon," a musical performance, and the release of Real Beginnings, a first-year student journal. On November 10, 2003, Cellar Roots held its first ever poetry competition. Of the twenty performers, three were chosen to have their poems published in the Fig. 2004 edition of Cellar Roots: Jonathan Desir, Brandi Harris, and Roshani Adhikary.
All poetry slams and writing workshops aside, Cellar Roots staff members are always adamant about encouraging students to submit and support the arts (especially at their own school). Since at least 2005, the staff members have been visiting numerous art and writing classrooms to promote the submission process and book release events.
In past years, Cellar Roots has produced award-winning books with a limited number of staff members. At times, only three students have had to endure the printing errors, submission storages, corrupted files, and missed deadlines. However, the staff members have worked diligently each year to sort through hundreds of submissions, then copy edit, type, web develop, critique, design, and support a changing and growing journal by maintaining a dedication to tradition while embracing innovation.
"The creative arts are an experiment; an attempt to speak deeper with whatever it is we are searching for" -John Lonsway, Editor-in-Chief, 2000.
History
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"During the past year the staff has attempted to go beyond the traditional collegiate publication to the formation of a multi-dimensional organization. We have felt a need to explore new ways of art presentation, to include music, oral interpretation, and song. Our primary purpose is to provide a creative outlet for the work that is best suited for publication. This is our latest attempt. We welcome your criticism and respect your comments."
-Dan Evan, 1977 Editor-in-Chief
Why Cellar Roots? Looking back at the words of Warren Brown, the first editor in 1971, we see that the name symbolizes both diversity and creativity. The endurance of these concepts has been carried on by staff members since the journal's rocky start. In a Focus EMU article, Ron Podell explained the start of Cellar Roots:
"The publication literally started in a cellar storage room in an old publications building--a two-story house that is no longer on campus--that also used to house the Eastern Echo and the campus yearbook [Aurora]. Cellar Roots later moved its offices to [121] Goodison Hall [where Marshall Building now stands] and then, in the late 1990s, relocated to its office in the basement of [18B] Goddard Hall." During the 2006-2007 year, the Echo and Cellar Roots offices made the move from the damp Goddard basement to the muggy rooms of King Hall.
Interviewed by Amy Wiseman for The Edge, Brown described one of his first daunting tasks: finding a name for the publication.
"The staff and I were looking for a fresh start in campus journals and hoping to come up with a fresh name. We thought up all sorts of things, and one day when we were meeting in the basement of the old publications building, someone commented that since we were in a cellar, perhaps a name with cellar in it could work. One of us hit on Cellar Roots. It sounded right to all of us, and apparently still works."
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Brown had originally volunteered to be editor of the then-new campus literary magazine. At the celebration for the 35th issue, Brown explained his fight for office space in an attempt to get Cellar Roots off the ground:
"Neither the Echo staff nor the yearbook staff wanted to give up any space, so I salvaged some discarded fluorescent lighting fixtures from my dad's business and old classroom tables and chairs from around campus to set up Cellar Roots' offices in a cellar storage room," Brown recalled. "The place was unheated, concrete walled; had a single, lonely typewriter; and was generally unfit for anything but staff meetings and manuscript sorting. I think the magazine staff used the cellar room as much as we could just to make the point that Cellar Roots deserved space in publications, too. Interestingly, once the room was made more or less usable, one of the Echo's photographers set up his copy stand and lights in the room while the Cellar Roots' staff was out. I retaliated by putting a lock on the door. He escalated by kicking the door in and continuing to use our offices. He and I had a rather heated confrontation about the incident, which luckily ended with an understanding about the sanctity of our space."
Impressed that Cellar Roots is still being published, he said, "Given the history of the other such magazines, I am amazed and gratified the magazine and the name have kept going."
In order to reach out to more students, Cellar Roots decided to take part in a collaborative project, Real Beginnings. Real Beginnings was first published in 2006, and although its content is similar to Cellar Roots, its submissions are limited to first-year students and "encourages them to reflect on their transition to college in a creative way." Both groups promote each other's book at the time of its release, and each group holds its own art gallery. Real Beginnings is also made available with the help of Campus Life and Diversity Programs and the First-Year Writing Program.
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In the simplest words, Cellar Roots has always been a medium for the writing and artwork provided by students, a "showcase of writing for the talent and diversity at EMU." Whether printed on newsprint or slick paperbacks, the editors have never been afraid to push the limits of design in magazine publishing. In 2008, the first issue with color photographs was released.
The drive for creativity in Cellar Roots will always be the provided by the students' submissions. "It's incredibly important, most notably for the energetic and selfless staff who keep it going, keep it innovating and push it into people's hands to see how cool it is. Cellar Roots has a long tradition as a nationally recognized journal of design, art and literature, and that largely comes out of the staff members' creativity and love for the thing," Parker said. Surely, Cellar Roots will always be the key to the inspiration of Eastern students.
In 2010, Cellar Roots returned to its roots- to an ALL-Student production, both creative content and production staff. The 2010 issue- number 39 was published completely in color and included three times the number of student works than in previous years.
Past Themes
Vol. 37 (2008) - Dreams and nightmares
Vol. 36 (2007) - Roles
Vol. 35 (2006) - Contrast of nature and man-made ideas
Vol. 34 (2005) - The conflict of respect yet caution for written work
2003 - "A journal theme because art, poetry and prose are often the closest glimpse we have to a person's true self."
Quotations and information from:
"Creativity Goes Deep" by Venus Gregory, Current, March 2006.
"Cellar Roots celebrates 35th anniversary" by Ron Podell, Focus EMU, March 7, 2006.
"Cellar Roots at 35: Novel Idea Endures" by Amy Wiseman, The Edge, Spring 2006.