Sonoma State University’s Literary Magazine “Zaum” is releasing its twenty-third issue. Zaum is a magazine 100% done by the students of SSU. It consists of anywhere between 70 to 100 pages of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or visual art to help around 20 to 30 students interact and voice their art in their own way.  Each spring the magazine has a new theme for the students to interact with.  

The magazine is dispensed all around the bay area and in some cases all over the world it has been extremely successful over the years. It has been at Sonoma State for over 35 years and was first called Mandala but has since been changed to its current name.  On the Zaum magazine online “about” page it describes how it got its name saying, “Zaum” is a Russian Futurist term that describes a thing as being transrational, existing beyond what can be perceived with the senses or understood by rational analysis.  This definition is indicative of the aim of ZAUM as a literary journal, which is to push boundaries and challenge conventional forms of writing.

Gillian Conoley, a poetry Professor at Sonoma State in past years has described the experience as, “wanting the students to have the experience of running their own magazine without professorial intrusion.”

Over the years, the poetry magazine has seen many awards come its way including many national awards. Students have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize award which is a very distinguished award around the US. Students have also received awards for the editorial vision and graphic design.

Nicholas Hadd, a senior at Sonoma State is interested in sending in his work to the magazine.  He said, “This is something that I have wanted to do for a while.  I found Zaum online and read through it and thought this would be a great opportunity for me.”

The magazine gives great opportunities for students every year and the application process is extremely straightforward. To be eligible for the magazine an applicant must be a student, not have been already published by another magazine and submit a maximum of 15 pages of prose and 5 poems. A student will send a submission in and if accepted during or after May it will be in the print version. If a student submitted during or after December and is accepted it will be a part of the online version.  

“I love independent literary publishing and like to provide an opportunity for students to create their own magazine both at Sonoma State and once they graduate.” said Conoley. “Literary magazines are the lifeline of literary publishing. Most great works of literature first appeared in literary magazines.”

Zaum’s contributors take great pride in their work. There are all different types of art, to poetry about singing and dancing, smiling to misery and prose writing talking about Homemade Hummus. The magazine allows students and writers to be creative as they want and lets them be themselves in a freeway.  Zaum has been described as a great first step for many young writers. Submissions for the magazine can be sent to zaummag through their gmail account.