By ANDREW SPIESS
BG Independent News
With great pride and spirited ambition, the Bowling Green Writers’ Workshop has unleashed the fourth issue of Squelch, the group’s annual self-published literary journal.
Compiled and edited by Managing Editor Elena Sands, Squelch #4 features poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction from the foundational and most recently joined members of the writing group.
Each issue of Squelch carries a dual theme, allowing contributors premises on which to focus their creative eyes. Past themes have been “Things You Love/Things You Hate,” “Utopia/Dystopia,” and “Past/Future.” This year’s theme is “Nature/Nurture.” To accompany their dualities, Sands creates the images that become the front and back covers of each issue using different art mediums, including photography and collage.
“It’s fun having a duality to write around. Also, I didn’t want to do a standard back cover,” Sands said. “People can do part ones and part twos of things, or they can write parallel but slightly different versions of the same story or poem if they want to, things like that,” she continued. “People take it to interesting directions. There’s a lot of play involved.”
“I think we’ve had fun discussions [about the dual themes],” said Lauren Veith, lead organizer of the group. “It helps interpret the piece, and it also helps throw a monkey wrench into interpretation depending on what side [of the duality] the author wants to work on.”
For the group of aspiring creative writers, self-publishing holds benefits that sit beyond the defining factors of being successful artists. For them, the point of self-publishing isn’t to make money or inflate their reputations. They simply want to challenge and achieve goals they set for themselves, as well as share their work with anyone willing to read.
“I know traditional publishing would probably lift their noses up at Squelch because it’s a vanity project in some ways,” Veith said. “But in a lot of ways, the fact that we’re able to put it out every year has really impressed me. And I feel like it’s really given us as writers goals that we’ve been able to complete and able to surpass.”
Over the course of four years, the difficulty in putting the publication together has eased. For Sands, composing earlier issues meant navigating tedious technical problems—factors a person wouldn’t think about when they open a book. However, with every new issue, the troubleshooting has become more bearable.
“I remember Sam [Newman], who is sort of the second-in-command, talking to me about the second issue, saying, ‘No, you don’t understand. Elena’s ripping her hair out’,” Veith recalled.
“It was difficult at first,” Sands explained. “I’d self-published before, and I did my own artwork for the cover, so I had some experience with that, but software changes every few years. There were so many formatting issues. Four years of lessons to learn, and everything has changed.”
Taking advantage of self-publishing’s accessibility, Sands has published two novels in the past, while Kayla Laumann—another member of the workshop with a presence on BookTok, a subcommunity on TikTok revolving around literature—recently published her own debut novel, “A Realm of Blood and Mercy,” last year after workshopping chapters with the group, as well as a sequel this year. Both are available for purchase at Grounds For Thought.
Considering the benefits of publishing in general, it not only allows writers like Sands and Laumann to share their work with anyone interested, but a realization of accomplishment also comes with being able to hold their work tangibly.
“I knew from prior experience that something kind of magical happens when you hold that book in your hand,” said Sands. Ostensibly, this magic might be akin to a degree of triumph experienced when one fully actualizes the ripening fruits of their labors.
The whole process of composing Squelch, as annoying and stressful as it can be, is a labor of love for the entire group. Sands admits that the exhilaration upon reaching the final product is undeniable.
“I’m always overjoyed,” Sands said. “The first one that we did was worth it and always has been ever since. We took this out and showed it to everybody, and a change came over their face. All of the doubts disappeared. Open up the book, see something that you have written in print, and suddenly everybody’s excited and on board. I watch that transformation happen every year.”
Contributing and looking forward to the next issue of Squelch is a potent motivator to finalize and share their creative efforts. It’s a source of individual and communal fulfillment.
“They’re already talking about what to do for next year,” Sands revealed.
The Bowling Green Writers’ Workshop meets every Wednesday at 6 p.m. You can find their Facebook page here. Follow this link to purchase copies of Squelch #1-4: Bowling Green Writers’ Workshop.
