Since the Bordertown literary journal was created five years ago, there has been a focus on Joplin’s past, this year the publication’s editorial team has decided to look toward the future.

Dan Golden, editor-in-chief of Bordertown, said he is not only trying to make the theme a more modern one but he is also trying to include a more modern spectrum of student submitted writings.

“We’re getting away from the old perception of Joplin; we want to see the new perspective reflected in the work,” Golden said. “I’m also trying to push a more modern eccentric view, the current voice, the up to date voice of Joplin.”

Golden has helped to do that by gathering a staff of editors that also want to see more variety in the magazine.

“I think we have a cool staff that will look at people’s work from a very fresh and intelligent perspective,” Golden said.

Every year a staff of editors gets together to publish one literary magazine composed of submissions made by students.

The submissions are chosen in a blind fashion, where only Dr. Joey Brown, faculty adviser for Bordertown and associate professor of English and philosophy, knows the names of the authors before she assigns them a number and places them in a folder for the group to read through.

“We try to take the best of what we see without any outside influences determining why we pick a work,” Brown said. “We just judge the work based on itself.”

While the journal is sponsored by the English department, but it is not limited to submissions by English majors.

“We want to read stuff from all students, all majors, all buildings,” Brown said. “We’re just looking for the best of what Missouri Southern students can write in whatever creative form that might happen to be.”

The design of the magazine does have an overall theme but the submissions can be about anything.

“We try not to be too thematic because we want people to send the best of what they have, whether it fits a particular theme or not,” Brown said.

This year the staff has also decided to make adjustments to the deadline dates to ensure the publication is produced before the end of the year. Because of some shipping difficulties the last two years, publications haven’t made it back before the end of the school year.

Golden said one of the disappointments from last year was that a few of the editors and contributing authors didn’t get to see their work in print before they graduated.

The deadline for submissions is Oct. 30. For information on how to submit, or to view published works from last year, persons may visit www.mssubordertown.blogspot.com.