The ever-present eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg may have simply been a metaphorical observer in the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic “The Great Gatsby” — but at Texas A&M, the eyes of the student body also dabble in poetry, photography and prose.
Inspired by the hit 1925 novel, The Eckleburg Project is Aggieland’s own literary magazine dedicated to amplifying the student voices through artistic expression. After a period of behind-the-scenes challenges that kept it on hiatus from 2022 to 2024, new leadership has revived the publication with fresh innovation and a renewed vision.
“I love the idea of a student literary journal, especially because I know so many people who have a huge passion for writing,” managing editor and English freshman Madeline Kiser said. “But they think that because of their major, they’re not going to ever be able to get their work out there. This is honestly just a really good thing for anyone if they want a chance to be published.”
Established in 2013, The Eckleburg Project has created an outlet for students looking for a personal approach to media. Pieces unique to the magazine are featured in its print and online semester editions, with authors ranging from in-house staff and designers to outside artists and writers.
“We combine student artwork and student writing, prose, poems, all that kind of stuff, and end up publishing it at the end of the semester,” head of design and visualization senior Alyssa Lazarchik said. “ … We also invite the student body to get to submit their own work, which is really special because then there are people that maybe don’t have time to make their own artwork, but they wanna put it somewhere. Then that gives them an avenue to do that.”
Although the student body is never short of creativity, a combination of decreasing submissions, dissolution of leadership and lack of funding led to the past halt of print copies. In the project’s most recent magazine, Lazarchik was tasked with designing a staff-only edition for all of 2024 as a result of dwindling submissions.
“We lost a lot of our reputation on campus, and people didn’t know we existed for a very long time,” editor-in-chief and computer science senior Brigham Pettit said. “And so we stopped getting submissions, so last year, what we did was we printed a staff-only edition because we were still running it as staff. We’re trying to open it up to submissions again. We’d love submissions from the student body.”
Pettit joined the project in the fall of 2022 as a staff writer but finished the academic year as head staff writer, soon to start training for editor-in-chief. His climb of leadership was not intentional, but rather the consequence of previous leadership graduating without properly passing the roles.
As a result, teams for marketing and screening were temporarily dissolved, and Pettit took on the roles of head staff writer and editor-in-chief simultaneously to account for the loss. Since then, current leadership has been working to revive the project to its former glory.
“Something that’s had to happen as we’ve restructured is basically, from a clean slate, bringing everything back together, all the officers,” Pettit said. “It is that energy of doing something brand new even though it’s not your job, but you’re excited to bring it in. I think all of the officers now have that sort of energy and that mindset. And that’s been huge.”
Among the new faces of The Eckleburg Project this semester is business administration freshman Julie Megason who serves as head of marketing, a position revived this semester. One month into the role, Megason is working towards a full social media rebrand and new recruitment tactics.
“She’s incredible,” Kiser said. “She took the branding and just ran with it. And so it’s looking really good. She knows how to talk to people well, so a lot of it is credit to her, honestly. At MSC Open House, she went to a lot of people and was just really good at networking.”
The Eckleburg Project is encouraging applicants of all skill levels to apply so long as they are passionate about the magazine and what it stands for.
“The whole organization is really about just bringing the community together and creating something that’s fun,” Pettit said. “We’re bringing something into the world that has never been seen before, and I think we all really love that feeling.”
The artists, authors and poets who look to submit to The Eckleburg Project can also opt to enter their pieces through individual submissions. A maximum of three pieces can be entered into each category of poems, prose, photography and art by April 1. All submissions go through a strict blind review process, and the contributor has the option to enter their pieces under a pseudonym.
“It gave me a very productive outlet for all of my many ideas for poems and so many things that I wanted to write about,” English freshman Lane Fulwiler said. “Being a member of the project gave me an outlet for actually putting those ideas to paper and giving them to a larger audience.”
Close-knit and fueled with passion, the organization’s members continue to provide ways for students to express themselves in an environment of like-minded people.
“It’s really easy to say, ‘Oh, I don’t have time for this, I don’t have time for my hobbies,’” Kiser said. “But then every single day, if that repeats, it’s like, you’re gonna fall into that trap. Even if you don’t want to become part of a permanent team, honestly, submit your work. We’d love to read it.”
