Barney Street, an anthology of prose, poetry, artwork and photography from University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point students, is now collecting submissions for its 35th annual publication for the University Writers.

Students are encouraged to submit up to three prose works, five poems, or five pieces of artwork. The organization usually receives over 100 submissions and narrows it down to a selection of 20 to 25 works that get published.

“We usually get a ton of good work here. We have lot of good artists on campus,” said Andrea Wagner, co-president of Barney Street and an English major at UWSP. “Whether it is photography or artwork or poetry or prose, we usually get a lot of really good submissions, so it is an enjoyable process.”

Barney Street had its first publication in 1978 and has been publishing student work ever since. It got its name from a street that was demolished in 1962, Barney Street. Barney Street—the actual street— only existed for 15 years before it was removed. The street was named after Barney Kostuchowski, a long-time citizen of Stevens Point.

Barney Street upholds many long-standing traditions such as only printing in black and white, including the cover. Wagner said that this may have started out due to printing costs but has turned into a tradition. The few times they strayed, once putting red on the cover and another time having a pick addition, people were displeased with the changes.

Another tradition ensures that the publication is always free. They have never charged for copies of the anthology because they want to keep the work available to the people of campus and the community.

One final tradition is making sure that the contributors always have full rights to their work. When an author or artist submits, they are never asked to give up the rights and will always have the option to publish again elsewhere if they wish to. 

“We cherish the idea that your work is your own,” Wagner said.

They are currently taking submissions for their 35th publication and will continue to do so until December 14. All submissions are read by the University Writers and judged anonymously.

“We go through and basically we look for good writing, things that are intriguing, new ideas,” Wagner said. “We want things that kind of span new horizons that we haven’t quite seen yet. We try to take everything into account and give everyone their fair judgment.”

After the anthology is put together and printed, it is distributed at a launch party, usually held in April or May. The books are also handed out at the involvement fair and sometimes to professors who like to have copies to keep or hand out to their students. Although the book is not widely distributed, it can act as a stepping stone to becoming a published author or artist, Wagner said.

“We are a small publication. We know we aren’t the grandest. You’re not going to get national recognition from this, but this does allow artists and writers to be able to say, ‘I am a published author. I have done this.’ And then from there they can go on to greater things,” Wagner said.

Students who wish to submit to Barney Street can send submissions to barneyst@uwsp.edu until December 14. Rules for submitting and a submission form can be found on their website.