Dear Readers,
What is a magazine? How do you carve out something unique while also staying true to what has come before? Can you make that red a little darker? Actually, can you make it a little lighter? What about a little bit more purple? Nope, too much. Can we just go back to what it was before?
These are just some of the questions we here at ENGL 4135 had to tackle while curating and crafting the 2nd issue of Sumac: Finding Your Footing.
This class is titled Studies in Publishing, but that is a bit of a misnomer. While we did study in this class, most of what we did was, well, doing. We learned on our feet, thrown into the deep end of literary magazine publishing. It was hard to choose the 25 pieces we are publishing from the myriad of wonderful submissions we received from people all across the Carleton community. This year’s theme, Finding Your Footing, continues the journey of words and poetry that the first issue of Sumac, Issue 1: Embark, embodies—many of our contributors are students who are beginning to embark on their life’s journeys and finding their footing in the literary world. Without your submissions, our magazine wouldn’t be able to exist, so to all those who have sent us your writing, from the bottom of our hearts, thank you.
We would also like to thank the incredible work done by the entire Sumac team: our dedicated managerial, editorial, and promotional team members. We could not have completed Sumac Issue 2 without the expert mentorship and guidance of Chris Johnson, our instructor, and Larry Thompson, Master Printer of the Carleton Book Arts Lab, as well as the team that worked on the 1st Issue. You laid the groundwork for us to build upon and inspired us to uphold the standards you set for the magazine.
We hope these stories of discovering places, community, and yourselves will move you as they have moved us. And to any future Sumac team members, remember to take a breath and ensure you’re on solid ground. If you try to run without being sure-footed, you’ll just trip.
— Sumac Editorial Team 2024
The Sumac Issue 2 Editing Team consists of students who participated in Carleton University’s ENGL 4135 course during the Winter 2024 term.
