From the Nominator

"The summer 2021 edition of the Carleton College Voice was a special issue dedicated to fiction and poetry written by Carleton alumni authors. While many magazines highlight fiction in their summer issues, we went all in. We wanted to communicate from the moment our alumni pulled the book out of their mailbox that this was indeed a "special issue." 

To that end, we changed the issue's standard size, making it smaller and, therefore, easier to tuck into a beach bag or a travel-friendly tote. We printed the book on an uncoated sheet—both to differentiate from our regular coated paper and replicate a literary magazine. Rather than run a traditional cover with a "special fiction issue" banner (certainly the more expected approach), we selected four different images that each "wrap" across the front and back covers. And, in each of the four photos, the "story" of the cover image actually begins on the back cover and "moves" to the right (or front cover)—another unexpected approach. The cover text was intentionally understated so as not to compete with the beautiful imagery. We teased the four cover images on Carleton's social accounts to generate buzz for the issue. 

Response was overwhelmingly positive. Our alumni recognized the specialness of this issue immediately and began tweeting about it and sharing it on social media. Several alumni wrote to ask how they could be included in the "next special fiction issue," which they all encouraged us to begin planning immediately."

From the Judges

This publication is very bold to weave fiction and poetry as part of the magazine, not something which is done often in Advancement. The content made the judges want to curl up and read it all over again.