Who says you can’t play with your food? Professor of English Brett Biebel’s book publishing class has selected “Eating Essays” as its topic for this year’s publication. The class invites writers from across campus to submit stories, poems and essays centered on one delectable idea: food.  Submissions are due March 16, and students are encouraged to bring their creative appetites to the table. 

Biebel has taught the course for the past four years, publishing through Augustana’s East Hall Press, a teaching press that teaches students the entire book publishing process. This includes manuscript selection, design, marketing and distribution. Through the class, students develop a range of skills, gaining insight into the industry and what goes on behind the scenes in book production.

According to junior Olivia Julian, who participated in the course last year, the class is divided into two sections: The first half is spent gathering and organizing submissions, while the second half is devoted to designing the book and putting it all together.

“Professor Biebel actually describes it as more of a job than a class. After [organizing submissions], it really is just putting the book together. You are learning [while] in the process of doing that, but it’s a lot of work,” Julian said.

In the second half of the course, Adobe and other design tools are used to lay out the final text. By semester’s end, a few hundred copies are printed, showcasing a collection of student work, unified under a single theme.

Biebel said this year’s topic was chosen to collect more light-hearted writings in comparison to the last few years’ deeper themes, such as last year’s “Borderless,” which featured international-based stories. 

“It’s open to humor, but there’s also room for students to do serious stuff, to focus on the campus experience, on a food system, or their favorite restaurant in town or their hometown,” Biebel said. 

Beyond exploring a creative and flexible theme, the course also provides students with hands-on experience in the publishing field. What East Hall Press offers is rare at the undergraduate level, as most colleges do not have their own on-campus book publishing organization.

Senior Kat-Jean Glusick, the current teaching assistant for the course, said it stands apart from other English classes because of its emphasis on practical, hands-on skills rather than traditional coursework.

“With other English classes, you have these units, and then what do you have after that? You write a final paper, and you’re done. But with this [class] you have an actual physical product in your hands,” Glusick said. “You’re going to have this knowledge in design, which is something that’s not really taught in other classes in the English department.”

However, students in this course cannot gain these skills without substantial submissions. Without a wide range of student writing to review, edit and design, there would be no book to produce.

This is an opportunity for students to have their work published in an accessible setting while helping their peers in the course at the same time.

“The best part of the course is reading what people write and working with student writers to not just make the book, but to get their work out to campus,” Biebel said. “The more submissions we have, the more fun that process gets.”

Students are encouraged to submit their work for an opportunity to be published by March 16 at [email protected].