Get some oats

As we reported last month, the Creative Writing department decided to take back Quarto in a more official manner, putting it “on hold” for now. So the former Quarto staff turned around and made their own, independent, new literary project: 4×4 Magazine.

Last night, 4×4 held an open mic at Book Culture on 112th.  The turnout was impressive, with an interesting mix of both students and grown-ups from the MoHi community.  Literary pieces were read, wine was drunk, cheese was eaten, and the crowd unanimously chose clapping over snapping.

But what really had everyone tittering was an announcement made by co-editors Aliza Polkes and Sarina Bhandari, both CC’14: submissions will be open starting this weekend for the “4×4 Award.”  Ok well that’s not the exciting part of the announcement.  The exciting part is that, despite not being an official Columbia literary project, and while doing all of this on their own in true student-run form, 4×4 snagged a fucking amazing judge for the “4×4 Award.”

That’s right, ladies and gents, Princeton’s own Joyce Carol Oates will be judging the “4×4 Award.”

The editors were able to meet her after she gave a talk at a recent literary conference at Pton, where they basically rushed the stage to ask if she would be the judge.  Many of the 4×4 staff report still being in disbelief and note that it is “so cray.”

The tentative deadline for the award is November 15.  The submission link is here.  Get writing!

Puns via Shutterstock