Arthur is under new (old) management, baby!

Co-editors-in-chief Abbigale Kernya and Evan Robins have taken over the Arthur office this summer and are knee-deep preparing for the impending Issue 0. With a 100% female editorship this volume, prepare for things to get, erm, 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂. 

As we lock-in on the mundane, menial tasks of management such as paying taxes and taking the recycling out, we are looking to you to help fill the pages this August. Have a story in mind? Need an outlet to talk about your hyperfixation? Hate your landlord? Drop us a line! 

‍Arthur has established herself as a robust and girthy pillar of the Trent University ecosystem and for better or for worse, we have no intention of deflating anytime soon. As raunchy as this rag can be sometimes, we know more than anything else that student voices keep this institution accountable, functional, and ever looking forward.

Issue 0 is the annual, inaugural issue of Arthur’s publishing year. It’s a reprise of all our summer madness, a point of entry for Trent students and Arthurians new and old alike, and—of course—a literary apéritif for the taste of the volume to come. 

As such, it’s a great, low-stakes opportunity to contribute something at which even the most journalism-averse person can jump. Why not introduce the club you’re in? Write about your college experience? Offer tips to newcomers in your program? If you’re a veteran Trent student, why not pass on some institutional knowledge?

For 59 years Arthur has served as your outlet to talk your shit and we intend to keep the tradition going. Whether previously published or not, you have a space in your community paper run by, and for students. Your voices deserve to be heard, and we are here to get them out into the hands of the masses, whether they be receptive or otherwise.

Why should you submit?

• It gets you published. Arthur is, despite our best efforts, a legitimate and well-respected masthead—we’ve got the awards to prove it! Being published in Arthur not only gives you the satisfaction of having something to hang on your refrigerator or gloat about on your Instagram story, but also the opportunity to do the professional equivalent of both those things: put it on your resume!
  Whether you’re trying to diversify an existing portfolio, or have yet to start one and are getting real antsy about the upcoming deadline to apply to that Creative Writing MFA, we have the platform to help get your work published, and we’re more than happy to help do it.
• It gives you experience working with editors. Even if you already maintain a Medium, a Substack, a personal blog, or another sort of personal writing practice, submitting to Arthur provides the opportunity to receive tangible feedback and work directly with people who care about your work and helping you improve.
  All our pieces go through a rigorous copy editing process, and we strive wherever possible to offer feedback to all contributors.
• It’s a part of a larger community. Whether you’re new to Trent and trying to find your place, or a veteran Peterboroughan looking for more like-minded people in your program, Arthur is a great place to start. We like to joke that Arthur is a cult (and it is!) but what is a cult if not a cultivated community?
  Something Arthur has always been good at is bringing people together. Whether in the pages of our letters section, or around the table at our story meetings, Arthur fosters an interpersonal connection that is integral to the university experience. Both of us have forged fiery friendships through our work at Arthur, and we hope to empower successive generations of converts to do the same.
• You own (1/10,000th) of our asses. That’s right, $14.30 of your tuition goes to buying your way into equal ownership of this co-operative press. Technically, this makes us accountable to you, a fact which you should leverage by getting involved.
  It also means that, in the abstract, you contribute to a portion of Arthur’s operations, and therefore the paper exists as much for you as it does for all other levy-paying members. It is—in the most literal sense—your student newspaper, so why not take advantage of the perks of ownership?

What should I submit?

• News. If you know of a story the community should care about, why not write about it? News stories are timely, relevant, and informational, and include (but are not limited to) event coverage, interviews, and other coverage of local interest. Try to focus on things which are topical and which have yet to receive extensive coverage elsewhere. News stories should be approximately 1000 words.
• Opinion. Just like assholes, they say everyone’s got one, so why not write it down to share with the whole world? If you want a venue to speak your truth, Arthur is as good a place to do it as any. Op-eds should be a minimum of 600 words, but who are we to stop you there?some text
  • Letters. A specific subsection of opinion piece consisting largely of yelling directed towards the editors and/or your peers. Letters to the editors can express a general opinion, as in an op-ed, or respond to a story previously published in Arthur. Letters should be no more than 600 words, though we’ll permit longer screeds should we be feeling generous.
• Culture. The opinion piece’s pretentious cousin, Culture writing can be anything topical that is more about editorializing or analysis than it is about straightforwardly reproducing facts. Think film reviews, personal essays, recipes, and Buzzfeed-esque lifestyle pieces. This is art that life imitates, as opposed to being art which imitates life. The genre also permits for a more fulsome engagement with your subject matter. With Culture pieces, you have up to 1200 words to work with—and more (at our editorial discretion) if necessary. 
• Sports. Both of the editors are hopelessly inept at most forms of physical activity, so why not pick up the slack and give our sports section some love? Attend a Trent game that you want to tell your peers about? Have some cutting analysis of a given sporting event’s relationship to Peterborough/Canada/the World? Just want to opine at length about why you love your favourite sport in a more esoteric way than everyone else? We’ll happily give you 900 to do it.
• Bowlcut. Think you can make us, the notoriously stoic editors of that most serious institution which is Arthur, laugh? The Bowlcut is the place to do it. Taking its name from the eponymous haircut which christened Arthur, The Bowlcut is a place for humour, satire, and also parody. Stories should be irreverent, clever, witty, and marginally offensive so as to tiptoe up to (but not over) the line of obscenity. Oh, yeah, and ideally they should be about 900 words.
• Literally anything else. Don’t see something here that you think you could write? Talk to us! Arthur has always encouraged all manner of depravity, experimentation, and writerly weirdness. Some of the things Arthur has historically published include (but are not limited to) film reviews; poetry; sex advice; short fiction; photography; art; personal essays; people’s nudes (with their permission, of course!); personal ads; and softcore pornography!
  Why not expand that list somewhat? We’re open to publishing all manner of things in good or poor taste regardless of how irreverent, wrongheaded, or raunchy. Just drop us a line at the email below.

So, sold on submitting something to Arthur? Just get it to us by 11:59 PM on August 9th, and we will do our best to get it in print!

Want to submit, but not sure what to write or what exactly the word “libel” means? Email editors@trentarthur.ca with the subject line "I Want to Submit to Issue 0" or drop by Office 104 at Sadleir House to hash it out with the editors. Our door is always figuratively open even if it is not always literally open, because we do play our music very loud. 

Yours in arms,

Abbigale & Evan

Editors, Volume 59