Harpy*s Magazine is a feminist magazine run by WSU students and features meaningful work relating to gender, racial and all around empowerment.
Janie Chu, senior public relations major and Harpy*s editor-in-chief, said Harpy*s is still on the newer and earlier side of things, but it does not set a topic for each edition.
Chu said the magazine is open to any submission that matches its vibe, and this year, about 20 students will be featured in the publication.
This year’s edition has been released digitally, but physical copies will not be released until the Harpy*s launch party in March, she said. This year is the first year Harpy*s will be charging people for copies of the magazine.
Kaitlyn Grubb, junior fine arts and marketing double major, submitted a piece of art to the magazine, which will be featured on the front cover.
Grubb said she was not familiar with Harpy*s Magazine until she submitted her piece to them, but she enjoyed the idea of being able to submit pieces from multiple different mediums that express similar ideas and have messages that relate to each other.
She submitted a painting she made last year focusing on acrylic paint, and the main reason she created her piece is that, around that time, she faced a lot of challenges and contradicting statements towards her as a young adult, college student and woman.
“I think one thing a lot of women collectively agree with is that we are always treated as the problem,” Grubb said. “We are always treated as the people that are the root causes of other people’s issues, and it also comes down to being gaslit.”
When Grubb was working on the piece, she had experienced a lot of physical, emotional and sexual trauma that a lot of women deal with and wanted to create a piece that put in her own thoughts and processes while also thinking about how other women are going to interpret it when they see it.
One thing she appreciated about the magazine is knowing her work might speak to people who feel the same way about her piece as she does, she said.
“This is one way we can all collectively come together and share thoughts and words and stuff like that,” Grubb said.
Chu said this is her first time editing a magazine; she enjoys getting the first look at everybody’s submissions and adding her own style to the design of the magazine.
The Harpy*s launch party will be held from 12–2 p.m. March 1 in the Compton Union Building Junior Ballroom, and Chu said this will be her first time planning out a launch party, which is exciting for her.
Grubb said her work has been published in LandEscapes as well, so she has experienced launch parties for her featured pieces before, but she is looking forward to being able to share her work and words. One of the main reasons she submitted her piece to the magazine was so people could see the piece and get something out of it.
“I want people to see why I created the way I created and just relate to the things I’ve created,” Grubb said. “I’m just excited to get another view of my work and share that with my peers.”
Submissions for the next edition are due April 5 and the submission form can be found on the Harpy*s Magazine website.
