The 2019 editions of “The Reflector” and “Write The Ship” launched on Thursday night at the Cora I. Grove Spiritual Center at Shippensburg University. 

Published students celebrated the launch by reading excerpts from each collection of published works. Students, family and faculty came to the event to listen and pick up their copies of the journals.

“The Reflector” is a student journal of literature filled with the creative works of undergraduate SU students, led by editor-in-chief Chris Carragher. Art, poetry, prose and photography are all included in “The Reflector,” according to Neil Connelly, professor of English and “The Reflector” faculty adviser. 

Carragher said the journal is the biggest it has ever been and has recently begun to include long-form prose in its pages. He also quoted Connelly in equating process of creating “The Reflector” to a pregnancy.

“You work on it for nine months and at the end you have this beautiful end-product,” Carragher said.

The purpose of “The Reflector” is to give students the chance to put their art out into the world.

“It’s not art if it’s in your desk or on your hard drive,” Connelly said. 

The next editor-in-chief of The Reflector is Ana D’Orazio, who led “Write the Ship,” as editor-in-chief this past year. She reached out to professors and students frequently to gather academic research works to be published in “Write the Ship,” D’Orazio said.

“The student editor really took control of the journal and made it student-owned,” English professor and “Write the Ship” adviser Laurie Cella said. 

D’Orazio developed a student editorial board and took on a lot of responsibilities that were previously shared by the editor-in-chief and faculty adviser. 

“It was really exciting to see her become truly a leader in this way and really own this,” Cella said.

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