Creative writing publication Cellar Door still expanding

Cellar Door is one of the longest running publications at UNC, and as writers, poets and artists submit their work before Monday’s deadline, they’ll be competing to contribute to the magazine’s 42nd year on campus.

On Tuesday, the group received $3,765 from Student Congress to pay for its printing and judging costs.

First published in 1973, Cellar Door has a history of celebrating the work of student poets, fiction writers and artists. Beginning with the fall 2014 issue, the editors added creative nonfiction to that list.

Editor-in-Chief Karina McCorkle said she’s not sure why it took so long for nonfiction works to be incorporated, but the shift goes along with a greater focus on nonfiction within the University’s creative writing department.

“I think there is just as much creative merit in a personal essay like a travel piece as in a fiction piece,” McCorkle said. “If there’s a whole set of creative writers who are writing creative nonfiction and they are barred from submitting pieces to the main creative magazine on campus, to me, that is just silly.”

Cellar Door publishes a 45- to 50-page issue each semester, with a launch party and reading at Bull’s Head Bookshop. Awards are announced at this event after the pieces are judged by a professional writer or artist within each category.

For the first time, Hanes Art Center will host an installation of Cellar Door artwork this semester — which will be on display for the week of Feb. 16.

“For as long as I’ve been here, we’ve had a reading for writers who are in the magazine, but we’ve never had an equivalent for art,” said Art Director Olivia Branscum. “It was important for me to have an opportunity for artists to show their work.”

McCorkle, who is in her third semester as editor-in-chief, says the success of Cellar Door alumni, such as short story writer and novelist Jill McCorkle — who is the cousin of Karina McCorkle’s father — helps to keep the magazine running.

“I think it’s, to a certain extent, every person in the creative writing program’s dream to be published in Cellar Door during their career at UNC,” Karina McCorkle said.

Sarah-Kathryn Bryan, a senior women’s and gender studies and comparative literature double major, has been submitting poetry to Cellar Door since her freshman year. She said while her initial decision to submit was based on knowing she wouldn’t be charged a submission fee as an undergraduate, she has since developed a loyalty to the magazine.

“It was the first place my work was published after high school, and it also has a high standard of work, so I really consider it an honor each time I’m allowed to have my work showcased among my very talented peers’ work,” Bryan said.

Branscum said she hopes to see more mixed media published. She has recently pushed for sculpture and video submissions, which can be posted on Cellar Door’s website.

“There’s a lot of really varied work going on at UNC, and I want to come closer to representing all of that,” she said.

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