Threads: Hudson Valley’s Student Literary Magazine

For any student with a creative spark in need of an outlet, HVCC has its own literary publication of student work. Threads is more than just a little book that comes wrapped up with the college bookstore’s English Composition I bundle. “It’s a magazine of student writing and art,” said Professor Noah Kucij, one of the four editors of Threads.
Threads is published annually and consists entirely of student submissions, right from the picture on the front cover to the words on the very last page. Submissions are made viaemail to threads@hvcc.edu and the annual deadline is Feb. 28. The works accepted to be considered for publication range from classroom essays to personal creative writing, to visual art such as photos and drawings. Every April, the Threads issue for that calendar year is published and the English Department hosts an event to honor the published writers and artists.

At this presentation, all selected writers are given the opportunity to read their work aloud in front of an open audience of faculty, staff, and students, as well as family and friends. Not only do students whose works are accepted for Threads get to see their name and work in print, but they are also eligible for the Threads Writing Awards. These are monetary awards given to some of the published students. “There are somewhere between one and three awards for writing that we deem award-worthy,” said Professor Kucij. In 2011, students sent in a total of 125 entries for consideration for publication. From this pool of submissions, the four-member Threads Committee then selects those works deemed most insightful and creative.

Currently, this editorial committee includes Professors Noah Kucij, Jaime Barrett, Ethan Roy, and Sara Tedesco. “We try to select stuff that we…think is well done. It could be cleverly crafted [or] it could take on a topic in a very intelligent way,” said Professor Kucij. He said that some selection decisions may be based on how well a particular work meshes in with the rest of the selected works, in order to create a “well-rounded issue.” Threads has been around for more than a decade now, with the concept first being developed in 2000 by Professor Susan Hogan. In spite of its long history, Threads has never been published more frequently than once a year. “It’s a lot of work. I don’t know that it would make sense to publish it more than yearly,” said Professor Kucij, explaining that publishing the magazine incurs a considerable cost to the college. He also said that since students often submit work created for classes, and that publishing an issue every spring semester allows for the most submissions.

The fact that Threads is only published annually does not eliminate the possibility of creating a more frequent literary publication, however. Professor Kucij suggested starting a student-run publication as another possible outlet. “If there were a couple of students interested in taking it on, they could do a smaller-scale magazine or little journal of creative work. Students could take that initiative, if they really wanted to” he said. At present, however, Threads still continues to be HVCC’s only literary publication, and the editors encourage all students to submit their work to it. “We love getting submissions, we enjoy reading everyone’s work, and we can’t wait to see what comes through the pipeline this year,” said Professor Kucij. For more information on Threads, or to read the 2011 issue online, visit threads.hvcc. edu.