The Echo is Furman University’s annual literary and visual arts magazine, which provides a place for students to publish creative works. Over the university’s history, the magazine has adapted to the ever-changing student community on campus.
One of the recent changes is that the magazine opened for submissions on Nov. 18 instead of in the spring semester.
“I think that this year, opening it for a longer submission period would allow for people to have more time to submit, but it would also allow people to add any submissions that they did through the course of the school year,” Alissa Xiao ‘25, the Editor-in-Chief of The Echo for the 2024-25 academic year, said. “I think a lot of people forget that they made art over the summer, so if they’re reminded a bit closer to the submission date that they can submit that art, for example, they are free to as well.”
This change to the submission period also gives the editorial board additional time to review submissions. Previously, all the decisions about what pieces to include would be made in one meeting.
“But this year, we’re going to have monthly meetings leading up to our final (submission) date, Feb. 21, to look over every piece that’s been submitted every month,” Xiao said. She hopes this change will allow for “a more nuanced discussion” surrounding submitted works.
In addition to extending the submission window, Xiao has expanded the magazine’s social media involvement.
“Having a bigger social media presence is part of the reason why we saw such a jump in submissions last year, especially from our peers from the art department,” Xiao said.
Xiao is also prioritizing that each member of the editorial board be represented. This year, The Echo has split their editorial board into two teams — one for writing and one for visual arts.
“Not to say that these teams can’t critique or have opinions about a writing piece or a visual arts piece from the other team,” Xiao said. “It’s just (so) when we have the bigger discussion, the people who have a little bit more experience with, for example, visual arts, can have a little bit more say about the specific technique of a piece, and same goes for the writing team, as well.”
Xiao also aims to ensure that each member of the editorial board is able to contribute to the deliberations.
“I’m very grateful to have a team behind me to assist and have these discussions as well,” Xiao said.
The Echo does not have any limitations on how many pieces students can submit. Xiao specifies the magazine’s guidelines, which can be found on the magazine’s Submittable page, as well as the types of content they are seeking. The Echo accepts a variety of student work, including musical scores, sculptures, set designs and poetry.
“(The Echo) won’t accept any prose that’s over 3,000 words,” Xiao said. “But content-wise, obviously, we want to stray away from harmful language. We want to stray away from anything that would hurt a certain community or may not be representative of an ideal that Furman or The Echo has.”
Another important guideline is that The Echo will not accept any work generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
“This (guideline) is for both written and visual art,” Xiao said. “It is very clear in our guidelines, and thankfully, we haven’t really had any complications with receiving any AI art.”
The Echo has had an extensive history since its inception between 1887 and 1889, making it one of the oldest running literary magazines in the nation. Its content reflects the changing culture each year.
“We can see recurring images,” Xiao said. “We can see certain things that some people are more drawn to, to talk about more. I believe, like two years ago, our issue had to deal a lot with emotional vulnerability, for example, that was like a very present theme in a lot of the poetry.”
The Furman community will see what this year brings about in the minds of students at the end of the spring. In the meantime, The Echo opened for submissions on Nov. 18 and will close on Feb. 21. Students are welcome to submit work in adherence to the guidelines listed on Submittable.
