Collision celebrates new release

Collision literary magazine is not just for Honors College kids.

Nicola Pioppi, the… Collision literary magazine is not just for Honors College kids.

Nicola Pioppi, the magazine’s senior editor, made this clear Thursday night when she welcomed all students, Honors College members or not, into the William Pitt Union’s Assembly Room for the magazine’s fall 2006 issue release party.

Founded in 2001, Collision magazine is the only nonfiction magazine at Pitt and one of only two undergraduate publications in the nation dedicated exclusively to nonfiction prose and poetry, according to the magazine’s Web site.

“Some people think we’re elitist, and we don’t want that,” Pioppi said, and urged all interested Pitt undergraduate and graduate students to submit their work. “We’re always looking for new members,” she said.

Scores of students attended the event, which was officially scheduled to begin at “9ish,” and sat around tables in front of the stage snacking on refreshments.

In addition to performances by The Meridians and Channel 4, two bands featured in the magazine’s CD insert, students in attendance heard readings by Margaret Krauss, Piotrak and Jess Flamholz, respectively the first, second and third place winners. These authors of the top three submissions each received a cash prize, between $50 and $150.

Krauss’s prize-winning poem, titled “One Generation From The Farm,” was her first submission to Collision. Krauss, who aspires to write for The New Yorker, or maybe National Geographic, described nonfiction as an “exploding genre.”

“It’s really cool, we have an undergraduate publication where kids can experiment,” she said.

The Honors College publishes two issues of Collision each school year. Submissions can include personal essays and narratives, travel pieces, profiles and poems. The magazine’s editorial board also accepts art, photography and music from local bands.

All students who wish to submit their work for consideration for the spring issue should e-mail submissions less than 3,000 words to collide@pitt.edu.