It’s crazy to think that Juice, the University of Winnipeg’s journal for student writing, is already in its 11th volume. The collection of writing includes poetry, dramatic prose and more, and provides a launch pad for unpublished students to finally carve that notch in their belt.

“If you’re a young, unpublished writer, a lot of magazines won’t even look at your stuff,” writer Rob Holt says. One of his pieces, “Deletion” is included in this year’s volume.

“I submitted a story last year, which the editors were kind enough to reject,” he says. “The story had gone through two or three revisions, and somewhere down the line I had forgotten what message I was trying to get across.

“Still, the journal was nice enough to write me a rejection letter, which included some handwritten notes on why, exactly, my story was crap. They were good notes, too.”

With so many writers submitting a variety of work for limited space each year, it’s only natural that the young scribes will improve upon their work, whether it is accepted or not.

“There’s one person published in Juice 11 that has been in Juice 10 and Juice 9 and I’ve definitely seen a growth in her work,” says Kyla Neufeld, who co-edits the journal with Bronwyn Evelyn. “It’s been a lot of fun to see that evolution.”

“ The journal was nice enough to write me a rejection letter, which included some handwritten notes on why, exactly, my story was crap. They were good notes, too.

Rob Holt, writer

Despite the fact that the physical book as we know it is adapting for an online world, only older issues of Juice (Volumes 8 and 9) are available online.

“I guess they just want to hold off on online publication until that issue is off the shelves,” speculates Holt. “I would think (and hope) that you’ll see Volume 10 available online fairly soon.  But if you want to see any of the work in Juice 11 sometime this year, you better just go buy the damn thing.”

“I think it’s just a lot more impressive and fun to be able to see your work in actual print form,” Neufeld says. “Anyone can get published online, but if it’s in a book, a lot of work has gone into that and it’s a lot more impressive to look at and be a part of.

“We haven’t really discussed it a lot, but we probably won’t be putting any more issues up on the website.”

Another way to get a taste of Juice is to check out the launch party, where a select few writers will be reading their work.

“I’ll be reading ‘Deletion’ at the launch party,” says Holt. “It’s about a young man who falls in love with a girl, despite his only contact with her being through Facebook, and despite the fact that she’s been dead for about six years.

Naturally, this causes some problems between him and his very-much-alive girlfriend. So it’s a feel-good story for the whole family.”

Help Juice launch proper on Thursday, Oct. 6 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall. The book itself is on sale for $5 and goes to support the publishing of future volumes.

Published in Volume 66, Number 6 of The Uniter (October 5, 2011)