USC Aiken's Literary Magazine Earns Pinnacle Award

Aiken, SC (11/29/2018) — The University of South Carolina's annual literary magazine, Broken Ink, earned the College Media Association's Pinnacle Award for Best Literary Journal.

According to the CMA website, the national awards "honor the best college media organizations." USC Aiken's 50th volume was selected as the top one among all four-year institutions around the nation who submitted their journal for the coveted recognition. Broken Ink is written, produced, edited and designed by students.

"We produce as good a product as we can and hope that the judges, and more importantly, our readers, appreciate it," said faculty advisor Roy Seeger.

"We won because we have a talented staff with a shared goal of presenting the creative works in their best possible light. We just do the best we can and hope somebody notices."

Not only did the CMA judges notice, but other institutions have too, and now they're reaching out to Seeger and his students.

"We [are getting] recognition from other universities that we are doing something right," Seeger said.

"Because of this award, a faculty adviser from Oregon State University e-mailed me for some advice in keeping his school's literary journal running."

The English professor at USC Aiken credits Broken Ink's student editorial team and submitters for the quality of the final product.

"I am proud of the staff of Broken Ink for working to create a space where students can utilize their creative talents, express their feelings and ideas, and gain confidence in themselves," Seeger said.

"I am also impressed by the variety of talents and voices that students at USCA bring to the table."

While the 50th volume of Broken Ink was a special, anniversary-type edition, that inherently isn't the reason for the national accolade, according to Seeger.

"This year, the submissions of our creative work was up, which directly contributed to the quality of the work in volume 50. We were in the situation where we had to reject work that was good because we didn't have enough space in the journal," he said.

"It is difficult to make these decisions, but I think it also lead to the strength of the overall work. We could only pick what we thought was the best of the best."

Not only did the Broken Ink team feel it was the best, but clearly other literary experts in higher education felt so too.

The next edition of Broken Ink is expected to be released in the spring.

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