Literature and film continually reimagine an ever-changing world, and through our research we discover our relationships to those art forms and the cultures they manifest. Publishing one issue per year, Wide Angle serves as a conduit for the expression and critique of that imagination. The journal provides a venue for undergraduate research and an opportunity for students to gain experience in editing and publishing. As a wide-angle lens captures a broad field of vision, this journal expands its focus to include critical and creative works, namely academic essays, book and film reviews, and commentaries, as well as original poetry, short fiction and non-fiction, and screenplays.
Cover Artist: Dora Baca
Dora Baca grew up in Lima, Perú, and Huntsville, Alabama. As a multidisciplinary artist, Dora hopes to create harmony in the differing seams of her life and to bring attention to the love she feels for her friends and family in everything she does. As a Studio Art senior, Dora has been contemplating the next steps of her career and has come to the natural conclusion that she should find herself collaging somewhere in Germany while mastering the art of freestyle rapping this summer.
Managing Editor: Alaina Boyer
Alaina is a senior English and Philosophy double major from Madison, AL. When she’s not absorbed in her class readings or chasing answers to another philosophical quandary, she’s likely lifting weights or making her third cup of pour-over. Her literary interests include modernist poetry and prose (especially T.S. Eliot), mystical and contemplative writing, as well as cultural and environmental writing in the spirit of Wendell Berry. After graduation, she will be getting married and hopes to teach great books in some capacity.
Assistant Managing Editor: Cooper Pitts
Cooper is a junior English major with a Global Studies minor from Hoover, AL. His filmic and literary interests include John Waters, Wendell Berry, and the intersection of theology and film. He enjoys attempting to write poetry, sitting in a cinema, laughing with friends, and mulling over theology. After graduating Samford, he plans on hanging out in Birmingham for a while before maybe pursuing graduate education in either Christianity and the Arts or English. But there are many bends in a river, so who knows!
Literature Editor: Abi Doremus
Abi Doremus is a junior English major from Fairhope, AL. She loves the work of William Wordsworth, Dame Maggie Smith, and Julia Child, in no particular order. Abi can usually be found on the quad, on her fourth or fifth coffee, planning a dinner party and dreaming about writing the next great children’s book. After graduation she hopes to travel abroad, discovering new poets and recipes to bring home to her friends and family
Creative Writing Editor: Ethan Howard
Ethan is a junior English major from Crestview, FL. He primarily writes fiction with notes of fantasy, horror, and strong coffee; currently, his literary interest is in the fiction works of Aldous Huxley. Aside from publishing his first novel, Ethan’s life goal is to own a cat named Gunther.
Creative Writing Editor: Georgia Wessels
Georgia is a Junior English major with a Creative Writing Concentration from Williamson, GA. When she is not reading and writing for classes, she enjoys watching objectively bad movies or going hiking with friends and family. Post-graduation she hopes to go to graduate school for a Master’s in Creative Writing.
General Editor: Jennifer Ellis West
Dr. West serves as faculty sponsor for Wide Angle. She specializes in Rhetoric and Writing Studies and directs the Core Writing program at Samford, where she is also Associate Professor of English. Her first writing job was for The Clinton News when she was in 7th grade, and she became the editor of Mississippi Magazine right after college. Despite 20 years of teaching first-year writing, she has yet to tire of giving feedback to aspiring writers.
Film Editor: Ellie Garrett
Ellie Garrett is a junior English student from Springfield, MO). She loves reading as a way of understanding others better and is consistently surprised and grateful that this is something she can take classes about. She can often be found listening to her questionably obtained mp3 library alongside a cup of tea and dreaming of her future apartment.
Submission Guidelines
To submit work to Wide Angle, please send submissions as Microsoft Word attachments to wideangle@samford.edu.
Submissions will be accepted from all Samford students, faculty, alumni, and staff. Authors are limited to submitting two pieces per category. All submissions must be anonymous; please do not include identifying information in the submission document.
Wide Angle values thought-provoking work that reflects the thinking and creativity of writers in the Samford community. By submitting work to the journal, the writer testifies that their submission represents their original ideas in their own language. To that end, submitting writers will be asked to provide a disclosure statement acknowledging any use of large language models (LLMs) or generative AI. Upon acceptance of submission, contributors will also be required to sign a copyright waiver prior to publication. All accepted submissions must follow current MLA style guidelines and be free of any grammatical errors.
Critical Essays
Essays can be close readings or analyses of any literary or cinematic subject. Submissions should not exceed 9,000 words.
Reviews and Commentaries
- Reviews of recently released novels, short stories, poetry collections, scholarly works, and anthologies. Reviews should be around 1,000 words.
- Commentaries on recent literature or film related events should be around 1,000 words.
Poetry
- Submissions may consist of a single poem or a collection of 2-3 related poems.
- All poems must be contained in one Word document. Each poem must be formatted on its own page with a title for each poem.
Prose
- Prose may be short fiction or creative non-fiction.
- Submissions should not exceed twenty pages.
Screenplays
Submissions should be between 5-15 pages. For longer works, please submit scene excerpts with an introduction describing the context. Follow standard screenplay formatting guidelines. Screenplays should be submitted as PDF files.
