Those aching to return to their years of teenage angst will have the opportunity to reminisce on past clichés at the Delta Literary Journal’s “Teen Angst Night.”
The Delta Literary Journal, a University undergraduate organization, will be hosting its fall fundraiser, “Teen Angst Night,” at The Parlor in downtown Baton Rouge on Thursday. Admission is $10, and entertainment will include live music and poetry readings throughout the night, along with an open keg. Proceeds will go toward the printing of the journal.
The Delta prints annually in the spring semester and accepts submissions. The staff of student submission readers and editors collaborate to produce the literary journal.
This year, the submission period will open before the end of the fall semester, which is earlier than in previous years. The journal content consists of poetry and prose fiction and nonfiction.
The journal’s student staff fundraises all of its printing costs, as the Delta receives no departmental funding.
The average cost of printing is around $800, but it can vary from $500 to $1200 for as many as 500 copies.
English and anthropology senior Meredith Aulds is the co-editor of the journal. While the journal relies heavily on the fall fundraiser, she said it’s also an opportunity to create something from the ground up.
“The journal creatively is generated by students, and also, financially, it’s generated by fundraisers and things like this, which makes fundraisers really important,” Aulds said. “But it’s also kind of beautiful. You get to have the physical, tangible work of that by the end of the year in the form of the journal.”
She said students participate in the journal as a way to foster creative literary talent at the University. Creating and contributing work to the journal generates personal revenue in the form of being published and meeting peers within the creative writing community.
English junior Lloyd Wallace is a fiction reader for the journal and said that although the Delta isn’t a widely known outlet on campus, he thinks it could be the initial spark for people to read and appreciate literature.
Biology junior Jack Mierl is a poetry reader for the journal who discovered the Delta through its Highland Coffees reading series. Mierl said the readings showed him a creative outlet at the University he wanted to be a part of.
In addition to producing its annual journal, the Delta hosts a series of bi-weekly readings at Highland Coffees where anyone can sign up to read their work. Mierl said the readings build community and are an important source for budding writers and artists to meet other likeminded individuals.
“Writing is sometimes a very isolating experience,” he said. “But going to readings and seeing what peers are presenting in their works and you presenting your own works helps foster a community.”
The Delta exposes students to people they wouldn’t normally encounter in college and helps them learn more about themselves as individuals, he said. Doing creative work is important because it introduces people to new perspectives and experiences and trains the brain to think in different ways.
“I think it’s important for students to support the literary journal because it serves as a creative outlet,” Mierl said. “Without the Delta, I really don’t see any source for undergraduate students to share their creative side in the form of writing poetry and prose. It’s the most underrated literary source at LSU.”