My experience as a staff writer for Descent Magazine
By: Tamanna Sood ‘24
Are you a person who identifies as APIDA (Asian Pacific Isander Desi-American)? Do you enjoy writing prose/poetry or dabble in the arts? Well, Descent Magazine is made for you!
Descent is a student-run arts magazine at USC that produces a semesterly online (and sometimes print) magazine that features content from APIDA Trojans. Descent’s mission is “to elevate and amplify APIDA voices by nurturing a space where they can showcase their artwork, stories, and other creations.”
I joined Descent as a staff writer at the beginning of last semester. I’ve always enjoyed writing poetry and prose, and I always aspired to be a published writer. Because of this, I was a part of art magazines and publications all through middle school and high school. As a journalism major in college, however, I felt myself quickly getting jaded with the staccato of AP style writing and was craving for an outlet for creative writing. Descent has filled that void for me.
The magazine is a fairly new publication on campus and started online during the pandemic. Each semester, the magazine lays out a specific theme, and staff writers interpret that theme for their own unique, individual pieces. Each week, writers meet to discuss pitches and hold workshops on progressing pieces. Alongside having a designated staff of writers, the magazine also accepts submissions through a writing contest for those who don’t necessarily have the time to be part of the executive board.
There are a lot of reasons why I love Descent, however, my favorite has to be the community of creatives I’ve been lucky enough to meet and work with. I absolutely love being able to write while being held accountable by peers. Knowing that I have a supportive group of people who will give honest criticism as well as praise helps me in the creative process and gives me a huge push to create the best content I can.
Last semester, the theme of the magazine was Things Left Behind. Some writers decided to take unconventional routes to represent their thoughts and created multimedia pieces, while others wrote fictional stories and poems to emulate their feelings. My piece was about the experience of leaving your childhood home to go to college and the emotions you feel when you return and see that things have changed. I called it, “Vignettes from Home,” and you can read my pieces in the current issue.
This semester, the theme of the upcoming issue is Splinters. If you have any strong feelings about the subject, I implore you to submit to our upcoming writing contest. The contest ends on March 10th at 11:59 p.m. Along with getting your work published, you will also receive merchandise from Kaya Press and a $10 honorarium. Runner-ups will also be published in the magazine and will also receive some Kaya merch! Visit the Descent website to get inspiration and more information on how you can also be a part of our upcoming issue!
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