History of Student Writing Journals
Hannah Castor
The first student writing journal was published in 1973 and it was called Potpourri. This first issue had no introduction to the content, and everything was typed on a typewriter. There was no distinction between genres, leaving readers to guess what was fiction and what was not. The back page of this issue credits four staff members, including one advisor, two proofreaders, and one cover artist. There were thirty-two written works and two pieces of art published, not including the cover art. There were sixteen contributors in all, but the two pieces of artwork have no artist listed.
In 1980, Potpourri was changed to Paideia. For the first time, a statement that “manuscripts are being sought for the next issue” with instructions concerning length, format, and where to mail manuscripts was included. War was one popular topic within the 1980 and 1981 issues, including the Vietnam War and WWII.
In the 1991-1992 issue, Paideia changed to Thorn. The issues were no longer typewritten, and pieces were contained in a much larger book than before. Thorn offered prizes in each genre for the first time in this issue, but the prizes did not yet include artwork. Thorn also began separating genres for the first time during this year. In this issue, there were eight essays, seven fictional stories, thirty poems, and eighteen pieces of artwork with twenty-five contributors total. This issue did not display any artwork. An essay in this issue titled “The Dollhouse” by Kim McCracken tells the story of a dollhouse marking a girl’s grave in Connersville, providing details about the girl’s story and how the dollhouse came to mark her grave.
In 2002, Thorn became IU East’s Journal of Student Writing and stopped offering prizes within each genre. It was not until 2006 that the journal became known as Tributaries, which has remained the title through 2017.
This year we chose to change the name of the journal from The Indiana University East Journal of Student Writing to Tributaries. The members of the Writers’ Club as well as the editorial staff felt that the new name was richer and held a more significant connection to both the writing process and the local area. Writing is a process of branching out into areas of the mind that are creative, informative, enlightening. Tributaries carries with it the connection to the Whitewater Valley and the many other streams and creeks in Richmond, Indiana, and the surrounding areas. –Tributaries 2006, Brian Graham
In 2007, Tributaries included contributors’ bios for the first time. In 2014, Tributaries began offering prizes within each genre once more, this time including artwork, which was categorized as a separate genre for the first time in the journal’s history. This issue also depicted its cover art in color for the first time. In 2015, Tributaries began accepting book reviews as another possible genre, and in 2016, interviews also made the list.
The 2017 issue contains more featured artwork than previous issues and in a greater variety of mediums. This issue has also grown substantially from previous publications, being nearly twice as thick as the 2014-2016 issues. This issue also marks the first time that Tributaries accepted written work and artwork from any college within Indiana. Previously, Tributaries was strictly an IU East journal, only accepting submissions from students, alumni, and faculty. Now that all of Indiana is welcome to submit, the stakes have been raised for those seeking a publication in Tributaries. To check out the most recent issue or to view past submissions, you can click here to go directly the journal’s website.
You can view some of our digitized issues at IU ScholarWorks.
