Chrysalis

Cassandra Mendoza Literary Editor EPCC Student Hobbies: reading, listening to music Artistic expression in the form of literature has always been a big part of my life. From a young age, I've devoted a lot of time to reading about a plethora of subjects. My main passion, though, is science, and I plan on becoming an astrophysicist and eventually writing my own book about modern science. I’m also a feminist, and I spend a lot of time reading and writing about social justice issues. Lastly, I really enjoy music.    

Got Editor Skills?  An Eye for Art? EPCC students, would you like to work on the college’s Literary & Arts journal? Chrysalis , EPCC’s literary and arts journal is looking for editors for the 2014-15 issue. Editors are given a small stipend. The job requires attending editorial and staff meetings. Strong candidates must be self-disciplined, able be able to work with others and alone, while meeting deadlines.  LITERARY EDITOR (Fall and Spring) -Read and consider submissions -Edit submissions -Work with writers on any major revisions -Assist with layout and production -Completion of English 1302 required VISUAL ARTS EDITOR (Fall and Spring) -Review and consider submissions -Knowledge of Photoshop and image editing software a plus -Assist with layout and production --Completion of ART 1311 required LAYOUT EDITOR (Spring) -Work with printer as required -Direct layout and production -Able to use Adobe InDesign and Photoshop Ap...

Good afternoon all! Last blog I stated how were doing radical things here in the Chrysalis, such as trying to implement our users' works in the blog, posting more frequently and more relevant stuff, and whatever else we can think of. We reached out to one of our contributors, Paola Rayos, who submitted two wonderful pictures, Una Larga Caminata and El Tercer Aire for this year's Chrysalis. We conducted our first interview to get to learn more of her, which she was happy to oblige in! And without further ado, here it is: 1.     To start off, would you introduce yourself to our viewers? Are you a faculty member or a student? My name is Paola and I am 19 years of age, I currently graduated from EPCC Valle Verde, and now I am transferring to UTEP. 2.     So, what do you do? What are your interests? I like to write and take pictures but before those my passion is singing. 3.     Why did you choose to pursue all of that? I chose to pursue photography ...

Greetings Everyone! Have you all been enjoying your summer vacations thus far? I said we here at the Chrysalis had some surprises in store for our viewers (which numbers in the hundreds... right?). Anywho, some of the new things we'll be doing here is posting user material that either did not ma ke it in the Chrysalis  or there was simply not enough room to fit it in. We'll also try to get in touch with users an d even do sh ort Q&As with them!  We here at the Chrysalis feel we can not only help people get their foot in the door to becoming successful in their paths but we can help give that professional feel with interviews, author/artist biographies, and so on. For those of you who are interested in doing interviews by all means email us at  Chrysalis@epcc.edu  and while you're at it, submit a piece or two (or three) for our upcoming Chrysalis next year! For now, expect more and more frequent posts from us! Any suggestions, tips, and critiques you have f...

Hello all! Have you been able to breathe yet from finals or do you still have a couple days left? For those of us with finished finals, enjoy your freedom, you earned it! For all the rest, don't worry, you're alone. I still have one last final myself until I can finally breathe for a total of maybe one day before going back to planning for summer Chrysalis work haha. Summer Vacation! Today will be a short blog post as we're all still feeling pretty elated after the recent success of the Chrysalis and the faculty member in charge is still swamped with grading hundreds of finals and dealing with crying students and whatnot. You know, the usual. But as far as Chrysalis news goes, stay tuned in for some really good summer blog surprises! By the way, don't be afraid to submit anything right now! The earlier we receive submissions, the easier my job gets haha. What will you all do this summer? For the more ambitious viewers we have (if we have any at all lol) I'...

Here, at the Chrysalis, in between bouts of procrastination and reading gigantic loads of poems, essays, short stories, and anything else required, we actually do like to plan for the future. For instance, did you know the Chrysalis is actually over 30 years old? 31, to be exact, this publication was first released in 1973 as little more than a small pamphlet totaling no more than maybe 30 pages. Over time, it not only changed its name, logo, and branding, but it became a magazine, it saw quarterly releases as well as annual, and now at this point in its life, here we have the traditional annual release schedule of quite a large publication. This begs the question though: What's left for us to? Where could we expand? Perhaps more frequent releases? How about a bigger book? (Though of course that would require more submissions and advertising which in turn requires a bigger budget). We have some surprises in store for you all, especially those who didn't make it to this year...

Congratulations everyone, may I inform you all that the Chrysalis has arrived! Technically speaking, it arrived yesterday, and we're going to be working on distributing it across all campuses as soon as possible (like, monday/tuesday depending on how fast the inter-post delivery system is). We've all waited this long but don't worry, it's almost over. For some of you, however, the wait is over as transmountain campus where the books were delivered to and our offices are located (TM Library, RM 1654, downstairs). We were surprised to see some students come and already take their copy of this year's Chrysalis  but rest assured, everyone else, we definitely have enough for everyone. =) I originally wanted to inform you all yesterday, the day of, but I, like probably many of you, took time off my sleep schedule to prepare for class. In this case, Physics was my enemy and a group project was what I lost sleep over. Thankfully, I managed to pass with an 88 and now I...

It's your friendly neighborhood editor again! As we approach finals week in.. well, literally, a week, instructors and professors are clamoring to put in that last test or quiz while those who have done their work prepare for the inevitable and those who haven't... prepare for inevitable. I hope you find yourself in the former category, because for yours truly, mine is a mixed bag. I will easily earn an A in only one class while I can safely say I'll get a B in two more, though the other two will likely be a solid C. Work hard while you're in college, everyone, because if you don't, then what's the point in it? I know I'm biased in that I am a stick in the mud so you should take my advice with a grain of salt, but I live life under the impression that we should do all the hard stuff now- earn a degree, learn, prepare for the future financially, and establish our careers - not jobs - while we're young so we can enjoy a satisfying and happy life in the f...

Hello all! I would like to apologize for my extremely long hiatus. It appears my last post denoting the end of my short R&R period this semester did not quite explain the levity of the situations this year has challenged me with. Let me fill you in what you've been waiting for though--  Chrysalis  info: We've already submitted the Chrysalis  sometime ago to the publishers who have been hard at work turning all your hard work into reality. At this point it's just a waiting game, but do not worry as we chose a very reliable publisher with good turnaround times. I mentioned earlier how we were short-staffed and that hasn't exactly changed. While, thankfully, with the Chrysalis completed and in the process of being printed, we haven't had need of a large staff. Still, an unintended consequence of that has been the delay of "secondary" tasks, such as notifying all users of their acceptance and rejection, cleaning up large swaths of files and organizin...

Hello all! It's me again, your favorite (or most annoying) editor here to greet you all after a much-needed mini-vacation (vacationette?). Yes, tomorrow Spring Break will be over and with it will come not only college again but the final steps in 2014's Chrysalis . It's been a long road and yes, there were many things I know I could've and should've done differently but the past is the past and thankfully we've managed to cram in as much content as we could into EPCC's literary journal. During this sunday morning, I hope you all are enjoying your last day before school and wish you all good luck in the mad rush to raise your grades before finals (or maintain them... which may be equally hard). Thank you to all who submitted work for the Chrysalis and thank you to all who just love writing. You guys are what keep literature alive and without you all, whoever you may be, there'd be no Chrysalis and I'd be out of a job (I kid, I kid; I wish this pos...

Hello all, it's me again, Jonathan (your friendly Senior Editor), and I just want to address a big question we've been receiving for some time now. We previously stated way back in the fall that we'd contact everyone about their submissions "early next year" about whether or not they'd make it in the Chrysalis. Well, unfortunately, we've been short-staffed this semester (we're only 3 people, down from from 4) and while we never had a "large" staff,  I'm currently taking five classes (some of which I'm struggling with) as well and balancing editing, remembering and doing homework for five classes, working with our members to layout and publish the book, as well as trying to maintain a somewhat healthy sleep schedule (that ship has sailed) has proven to be... well, tough. Our faculty member in charge has the oh-so fun job of grading somewhere around a couple hundred essays and such and our submissions coordinator has his large load of c...

It seems another sleepless night awaits me today, though different from my previous bouts of insomnia. Our submissions this semester, while somewhat scarce compared to previous years, still numbered enough to leave yours truly (Senior Editor) feeling like an English teacher. Trust me, reading a bunch of stories and poetry, good or not, can get tiresome, and add in editing them all to ensure they're grammatically correct in time for publication and it can get pretty tough. Thankfully, I am not alone as our faculty member in charge has a little over 100 essays she must read and evaluate for all her students even as I speak. Oh yes, I totally went there. Whatcha gonna do? Huh, huh? I kid of course, but it won't be long until I will be in her shoes, literally, when I become an English teacher myself. Call me crazy (or masochistic) but as tedious and time-consuming as editing can be, I'd actually rather do this for maybe even my future profession as it's honestly a very ...

We here at the Chrysalis would like to first say we're still alive! Yes, it's been a long time since our last post and we've been working hard, planning ( lots of planning), and preparing for not only the inevitable publication of EPCC's prime literary journal but even the future of the Chrysalis. At this point in time we've been working hard trying to ensure publication would finish seamlessly and so far things are looking up. With deadlines long since done and all material read, the long and arduous journey left is to edit (which is where I come in), layout the entire publication with our fancy, state-of-the-art software and hardware (by the way, we got a phone!) and send it off to the printing press.  We've planned for an early April release (though if all things go well with its printing maybe sooner). For those dreading finals fear not!! For you shall have the Chrysalis  to fall back on as a source of inspiration, comedy, and insight during your long...