The judges have given their verdict, a winner, a runner-up, and even an honourable mention were pulled from over 30 entries into The Voice Magazine’s writing contest on the fiction side. I’ll be running those three entries and maybe some others that I personally think are notable over the next several weeks, but we’re starting off this week with the honourable mention. So check out “And the Winner Is…” for all the info on both our prestigious judging panel and who took the prizes and recognition!
The non-fiction judging panel is taking a little bit of extra time, as they’re all pretty busy people and so I’m just pleased they were willing to take some time out to review the entries. Hopefully, I’ll be able to report some results from them soon!
Also this week, we have a featured interview with student Jadianne Simpson. If you’re a student who started off with one life path in mind and then came to realize it wasn’t quite what you wanted, you may find a kinship in Jadianne’s story. And speaking of the Minds We Meet, I’ll soon be posting on Facebook looking for a new person to take over the column, as Natalia is going to be spending more time focussing on her AUSU executive duties (and honestly, I don’t blame her). But to make sure we keep our focus on students, I’m going to need help from you, both as interview subjects and potentially as my new interviewer. So if you’ve been itching for a good reason for some human connection during the pandemic, or you simply want to get to know more of your students, please contact me at karl@voicemagazine.org. We give help to get you started creating solid interview pieces, and then pay you to simply have a chat with another fellow student and make an article from it!
Also this week, Woman of Interest presents Margaret Wilcox, a woman who created a patent for a car heater back in 1893! If you regularly look at the Woman of Interest column, you’ll note we typically try to get a picture of the subject, but this time we don’t have one. It was a stark reminder for me to be careful of the things you see on the internet, as if you search for Margaret Wilcox and her car heater patent, you’ll easily find quite a few images purporting to be her, but look closely. The picture you’ll find obviously comes from the mid-20th century, I’d guess the mid 1960s or so, as women of the 1860s (when Margaret Wilcox, inventor, was about the right age for the photo) typically wore high collars, or button-up blouses. Yet in photo after photo we see a woman wearing a light sweater with a hair-style that surely took some hairspray to maintain, neither of which were in much use (or even existed) back in the 19th century.
It’s a stark lesson that we as AU students, perhaps more than any other, need to remember: the internet makes mistakes. Not even photographic evidence is safe.
We also get a rant from former student Jeff Shermack, as he talks about something every AU student can identify with, working from home, and the difficulty that causes in separating what is work with what is home, and what that ends up meaning.
Of course, we also have recipes, advice, reviews, scholarships, events, and more! Enjoy the read!