Driftwood Magazine Award Party

A gigantic pizza was the perfect choice for a celebration of a job well done by the 2018–2019 Driftwood staff.

Along with the comically large pizza, the drinks, snacks and photo booth helped make the annual Driftwood Awards Party a success. On March 13 in the ARC, writers were presented with awards by the Driftwood staff.

The Driftwood is the campus literary magazine that includes works of several different mediums created by students of PLNU. Nonfiction and fiction short stories, poetry, and photography are all submitted to the staff in the fall. The pieces are then edited and published, and the finished book is sold on campus during the spring semester.

The staff judges the student pieces for awards. They give out awards to the first, second and third place pieces, as well as the honorable mentions. The awards party is a way to get together to celebrate the creativity that has come together to create the magazine, and also a way to hear the stories behind the work. Olivia Mora, a member of the Driftwood staff, says the party was a way for her to put author’s faces to pieces she’d been reading.

“Hearing some of the writers explain their thought process or reasoning behind their writing was really powerful,” Mora said. “After working on selling the books for a few months it was really cool to hear how much people enjoyed being published in it, or just hearing how much people enjoyed reading it.”

Lucas Jacobsen, who contributed a poem to the magazine, was excited to hear that his work was going to be published. “It really is pretty cool to see your name published,” said Jacobsen. “I really didn’t expect to get my writing in there, but I mean, it’s in there!”

The Driftwood is a great campus platform to get students creatively involved, and maybe even discover new talents. For Jacobsen and others, getting published can kickstart a desire to pursue the arts.

The Driftwood is created every fall semester and sold every spring. If you’re interested in getting published next year or joining the staff, email driftwoodplnu@gmail.com.