None of the Above, the award-winning fine arts magazine that publishes art, music and literature that is created, edited and designed exclusively by UW-Eau Claire students, will be releasing its latest issue in December. 

Students can submit art, poetry, prose and music to NOTA once every semester. Submissions for the fall semester closed Oct, 6, 2022.

Claire Bradley, the poetry editor for NOTA, explained that NOTA meets to discuss the pros and cons of submitted pieces of prose, poetry, art and music in depth before making the final decisions. 

“From what I’ve read so far, they (the poems) are all really good, so it’s going to be an interesting debate on which ones go into the new issue,” said Bradley. “It’s a hard job sometimes.”

Bradley said she is excited to see which poems speak to certain people, as well as what people choose to read.

“We have a lot of open reads, so if you’re interested in hearing a lot of the poetry, that’s something to look forward to,” Bradley said. 

Bethany Mennecke, the art director of NOTA, also spoke of her anticipation for the upcoming issue.

“We just finished our art submission night last night and got about 50 submissions, which is the most we’ve gotten since COVID-19,” said Mennecke. “I’m excited to see it come together.”

Mennecke said that involvement with NOTA and submissions have increased, especially this year, but COVID-19 did cause a partial lapse in students’ engagement with NOTA. 

“I’d love for people to know that when submissions open, even if you don’t feel confident in your work, just submit it because you never know what will happen,” Mennecke said.

Students can submit their pieces via email and can find more information and dates for the submission process on NOTA’s Instagram.

Emma Friend, editor-in-chief of NOTA, said that when the pandemic hit, NOTA had to make all events virtual and stop printing the physical book in exchange for releasing virtual editions.

“We’re trying to bring back some of our collaborations,” Friend said. “Usually we collaborate with the writing center and a couple other literature organizations in the Chippewa Valley to do events.”

Friend said the NOTA selection committee is open for anyone to join and reads and discusses the pieces to help bring different perspectives on what goes into the magazine.

“One thing I’m excited about for this edition is that we have a whole new literary team,” Friend said. 

Friend said she was enthusiastic for the upcoming issue and the availability to plan in-person events for NOTA. 

“We also hold open reads, where people can come and read their writing or play music and just share their creative stuff with the campus,” Friend said.

According to Friend, the book release party for the upcoming issue of NOTA is at 7:30 p.m., on Dec. 8 in the Cabin. 

“That’s when we finally bring the copies and distribute them to people and a bunch of contributors will come and read their writing,” Friend said. “We usually have some music too, so it’s a good event.”

To find out more about current NOTA open reads and other events, check out their Instagram and Linktree or email [email protected] with any questions. 

O’Brien can be reached at [email protected].