Eastern students have met a milestone many writers strive for within the Fall 2010 edition of The Vehicle.

Every semester the publication gives Eastern students the chance to gain literary experience by having their work published.

For this semester’s publication, 50 students submitted their art, poems and stories, while 34 student submissions were included.

The submissions were lower for the Fall 2010 publication compared to the Spring 2010 book; however, Lisa Myers, the Editor-in-chief of The Vehicle, said this is normal.

“Usually there are more submissions in the spring because people have had chance to work on their pieces from their creative writing classes,” said Myers, a senior English major.

And while the submissions are open to the entire campus, most of the submissions are from English majors.

“We have talked about this a lot, about how to branch out and have more submissions from across campus,” said Ben Tillery, the assistant editor for The Vehicle and a junior English major.

One of the ways the staff has tried to receive more submissions from across different departments on campus is by creating an online submission process.

This is the second year the online submission has been an option.

“We have a good system so far with the actual online form, but we’re looking to re-vamp the website in general,” Myers said. “Right now it is basic, but we want it to be more artistic to better reflect Eastern and the English department.”

With the new online format, Myers said they have talked about features allowing writers to get in touch with other writers and an online archive of previous work.

“It’s a slow work in progress,” Myers said.

Letitia Moffitt is the faculty adviser for The Vehicle.

“She is great, she really takes a side role and lets me take the reigns,” Myers said. “She has suggestions but she truly wants this to be a student publication.”

An assistant editor was added to the staff for this semester and Myers said the extra help was welcomed.

“It was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of,” Myers said.

Tillery said one of his main responsibilities was collecting the online submissions and preparing them for the reading committee.

“People have all but stopped carrying in their submission,” Tillery said. “So, part of my job was to print them all off and getting them ready for the reading committee by marking out the name and assigning each submission a number so the process is anonymous.”

Tillery also helped with the publicity for the chapbook.

Myers and Tillery will keep their positions for the Spring 2011 edition.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s rewarding,” Myers said. “We had a few errors, but over all it was good.”

Kayleigh Zyskowski can be reached at 581-2812 or kzyskowski@eiu.edu.