5 questions for ... Clarinda Harriss

For English professor, Grub Street  is preferred address

Harriss, teacher, muse and mentor to generations of students, discusses TU's award-winning literary and arts magazine and the pleasures of advising its talented undergraduate staff.

Are campus literary magazines still popular?

They’ve never stopped being popular. There are huge numbers of them, from little photocopied things to very ambitious publications. Our own, Grub Street, was established in 1952. At one time it was very humble, just stapled together. Now it’s an SGA-funded, in-house publication with

an 8,000-issue print run. 

So what's in a “literary and arts” magazine?

Grub Street accepts all kinds of written and visual work: poetry, prose, one-act plays, nonfiction, essays, song lyrics, photography, and drawings and paintings, for example. The selection process is known as a blind review, which means that the authors’ or artists’ names are concealed from judges. Contributors may include TU students, high school students and faculty members—sometimes even the inmates with whom I've worked at the Maryland House of Corrections.

Who's on the staff?

There’s a self-selected group of really interested students who return term after term to work on the magazine. When I chaired the English department, I made Grub Street part of the curriculum—it’s actually a Topics in Writing course.  I function as the adviser, meeting with the staff/class twice weekly. We have a small but very dedicated senior group, but there’s always room for anyone who’s willing to make the effort. And there really is a considerable amount of work involved.  

And that work has paid off, right?

We’ve always taken part in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s critiques, and Grub Street  has always done well—typically placing in the Silver Circle. But last spring the judges selected our 2005 issue to receive a Gold Crown Award, which was very exciting. Only four other U.S. universities—iincluding Harvard—were so honored for student literary magazines.

Do you hear from former Grub Street regulars?

I hear from them all the time—the students associated with Grub Street  do amazing things after graduation. One lived and taught in Japan for many years, where she established a small publishing company and issued exquisite CDs of poetry readings. Another is touring the country with his band and running his own publishing company. The magazine has been a ticket to publication jobs for many former staff members.

Grub Street is available free of charge in Linthicum Hall, University Union and at other selected campus locations.

Story by Jan Lucas/Photo of Clarinda Harriss and Ryan Scherer by Kanji Takeno

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