By: Tyler Rizzo
Have you ever wondered what those small books you see around campus are? The ones with the artistic cover and the title Breaking Ground on them? That right there is Broome’s very own self published literacy article. One that is made with the stories that you, the students, and facility create and submit. Everything down to the front cover was made from fellow students, faculty, and alumni. It was also edited by students too!
Breaking Ground has had a long history in SUNY Broome. We talked with Professor Virginia Shirley, who is currently running one of the classes that edits the submissions, to go over the history of the magazine. She has mentioned that Breaking Ground has been around for a long time with the earliest copy found being from 1996.
“If I have my history correct, it has been something that’s been going on for as long as we’ve had creative writing classes here. It started as a very small class publication….and from there it grew and one of the professors decided to make it more entrenched and turn it into a class where it wasn’t just creative writing but how creative writers could figure out how to publish, how to edit, how to do layout, and how to really understand how their work came from their own creative endeavors to a published piece.” She said,
You may think that you can only get a submission as a writer, but Professor Shirley mentions as an important note that you don’t need to be one. Anyone with an artistic mind can submit to Breaking Ground; Photographers, artists, and anyone alike are welcome! Professor Shirley has also talked about how every year the magazine is produced, the people who had submissions are really proud to have their work published, as well as the student editors being proud to have made the magazine what it is today.
There is a reading at the end of the school year in May where faculty, staff, students, and alumni read their work and celebrate the production of the article and it acts almost like a community that celebrates what they accomplished together.
fulcrumnewspaper.com 