Like the flowers that indicate spring, the yearly edition of Touchstone Literary Arts Magazine is nearly in bloom. The campus organization is gearing up for its 45th issue, which will be released April 26. The magazine showcases students’ talents through multiple artistic mediums: poetry, prose, visual art and photography. The theme of this year’s magazine highlights all things whimsical, with a focus on the soft, tranquil and floral. This year’s theme is a stark contrast to the dark and broody side of art that was showcased in previous issues.
Sheridan Macon ’26 is the current Executive Editor of Touchstone. Macon described the theme of this year’s magazine as an emergence from the woods into a field of flowers, a metaphor for the magazine transitioning to a lighter theme. “The past three years of touchstone have all been dark and broody and swampy and that’s so cool,” Macon said. “But also, I love whimsy. I’m a very whimsical guy. And so we decided that would be the theme.”
The invisible string that led Macon to Touchstone began before his time at Stetson. Macon recalled that he participated in a shadow visit to Stetson and attended events for admitted students like Scholars Day and Hatter Saturday. It was here that he accumulated a few Touchstone magazines and learned about Touchstone’s weekly open mic event, Uncouth Hour. “I was coming into Stetson as an English major with a creative writing minor, and anybody who you told that to would go, ‘Have you heard of Uncouth Hour?’” he said. Macon attended Uncouth Hour and became enthralled, making it a weekly priority. He eventually joined Touchstone staff and applied to the executive board last spring, with the encouragement of the prior Executive Editor, Ali Burgess ’25.
Macon is continuing the tradition of theme-driven issues, which began with Burgess and the staff that created the 44th edition of Touchstone. Macon is also continuing the recent tradition of creating a magazine organized by mood rather than medium. Many previous editions of Touchstone separated the magazine into sections based on art form. “Combining visual and literary arts and allowing them to play together in the same space enhances both of them. It brings both of them up a level in the way that just putting a bunch of words together side by side, or just putting a bunch of pictures together side by side, does not allow,” Macon said.
Complimentary art is placed together during the design process, but submissions are not chosen based on which pieces go “best” together. Each piece of art is judged individually and anonymously. There is one committee per art form, and each member scores individual pieces on a one-to-five scale, five being the “best” and one being “not ideal for the magazine.” The committee convenes to share their scores and average them. If there is a discrepancy in scoring, which is rare, the committee will discuss the piece further to come to a shared conclusion on the scoring.
Touchstone begins filling the magazine with pieces that scored a five, and if they have room, they will begin to move down the scoreboard, beginning with including pieces that scored a four. Each editor of Touchstone is guaranteed one piece in the magazine to mitigate any editor bias in the selection process. Once pieces are chosen, Touchstone staff designs the magazine all on their own, during their “InDesign party,” a long staff design session. Using the Adobe InDesign program, the staff leads art to its rightful place on the glossy page.
“If you see a poem and you see a piece of art next to it, it’s because we felt like they went together in some way,” said Burgess. The prior Executive Editor of Touchstone and current Editor-in-Chief of Hatter Network expressed their support of fusion not just on the page, but within Hatter artists. Burgess described how Touchstone helps staff artists find their specialties and kindred spirits along the way. “We have a lot of artists who are multi-medium on Touchstone this year and last,” they said. “We have a lot of people who perhaps hadn’t connected with a specific type of art, and now they’re meeting [artists] who they’re connecting with now.”
“The way that visual artists and writers can just make each other’s work sing, it’s just so fascinating,” Macon said. “I love it so much. I’m so glad that Touchstone is a place where we can foster that and showcase that, and get it out to all of campus.” He recognizes the perfectionism that irks artists during the creative process and encourages a perspective that looks past the end product. In a fast-paced world, Macon appreciates Touchstone for being a space where artists can collaborate with other artists, whether it be on their Touchstone submissions or performance pieces during Uncouth Hour. Through the organization, Macon said that artists have the freedom to not mundanely create art but to live in the process, “I believe that the communities that we build surrounding our art are just as important as the art we end up making.”
Burgess shares Macon’s communal sentiment on the topic of pushing boundaries, “It sounds silly to say that community is pushing a boundary, but making people connect in a way that perhaps they wouldn’t be inclined to, or perhaps they’ve felt ashamed to, I feel like that pushes a boundary in every way.”
Touchstone artists are pushing boundaries internally as they demonstrate emotional vulnerability. “For a lot of people, things that they may feel ashamed of or outcasted for is often expressed into beautiful and personal art,” Burgess said. They describe the voices of the younger and developing generations as uniquely important and often undermined, “I think that there is a lot of expression that perhaps has not yet been stifled by more aggressive later-in-life experiences.”
Touchstone staff and the selected artists for this year’s edition will gather on April 25 for a release party. The next day, Hatters retrieve their own copies of the magazine around campus, free of charge. Macon encourages students to read Touchstone and allow art to slowly reveal answers to us in a world where we itch for their immediacy, “It’s hard to put in the work to analyze and observe. I get it. We’ve been trained not to. But by picking up a Touchstone and giving every single one of those pieces the time of day, the attention that it deserves, the attention that you believe you have for it, maybe you’ll find something.”