2008 Woodie Awards
Literary sex magazine debuts
Sarah Rutledge
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: News
Harvard may have the H Bomb and Cornell may boast the SMUT, but next Friday, Rice will join their ranks with Open, its first sex magazine. Editor in chief Rachel Solnick plans to distribute the 68-page black-and-white magazine's 1,500 copies to Rice and the surrounding Houston community.
The magazine is composed of seven sections: Perspectives, which features individuals speaking as part of a group; editorials; articles, which cover news and historical events; short stories; poetry; the post-secret section, from campus-distributed postcards which garnered student input; and the results of an online sex survey from earlier this semester, which received over 800 responses.
This issue will feature a Buddhist monk's experience with celibacy, reactions to abstinence-only sexual education, the AIDS prevalence in Botswana, the Kama Sutra as a historical text, as well as a personal essay about the way sex is treated in the United States and India.
Solnick, a Wiess College sophomore, said anyone could submit work for the magazine. Solnick posted flyers in Houston parks and invited students from other universities to submit their work. Solnick said Open also received several anonymous submissions.
"As a writer, you're sharing your very personal details, so the fact that we allow things to be anonymous gives people a lot more flexibility in how honest they would like to be," Solnick said. "You don't always have friends who have had these experiences but you can definitely grow through reading about them."
Solnick said she got the idea to start a sex magazine at Rice when she heard about other schools' publications. She said she originally thought of publishing the magazine twice a year but realized the magazine lacked the money and manpower to cover production in the fall and spring semesters.
Open received Rice's Dr. Bill Wilson Student Initiative Grant, which will cover its $3,300 in publication costs this year. The launch party, which will be held at Willy's Pub next Thursday, will include an auction of posters with images from the magazine, which Solnick said she hopes will help the club break even for the year and raise money for next year. Students can pick up a copy of Open during the launch party or from a representative at their college next Friday at lunch.
The magazine is composed of seven sections: Perspectives, which features individuals speaking as part of a group; editorials; articles, which cover news and historical events; short stories; poetry; the post-secret section, from campus-distributed postcards which garnered student input; and the results of an online sex survey from earlier this semester, which received over 800 responses.
This issue will feature a Buddhist monk's experience with celibacy, reactions to abstinence-only sexual education, the AIDS prevalence in Botswana, the Kama Sutra as a historical text, as well as a personal essay about the way sex is treated in the United States and India.
Solnick, a Wiess College sophomore, said anyone could submit work for the magazine. Solnick posted flyers in Houston parks and invited students from other universities to submit their work. Solnick said Open also received several anonymous submissions.
"As a writer, you're sharing your very personal details, so the fact that we allow things to be anonymous gives people a lot more flexibility in how honest they would like to be," Solnick said. "You don't always have friends who have had these experiences but you can definitely grow through reading about them."
Solnick said she got the idea to start a sex magazine at Rice when she heard about other schools' publications. She said she originally thought of publishing the magazine twice a year but realized the magazine lacked the money and manpower to cover production in the fall and spring semesters.
Open received Rice's Dr. Bill Wilson Student Initiative Grant, which will cover its $3,300 in publication costs this year. The launch party, which will be held at Willy's Pub next Thursday, will include an auction of posters with images from the magazine, which Solnick said she hopes will help the club break even for the year and raise money for next year. Students can pick up a copy of Open during the launch party or from a representative at their college next Friday at lunch.
Comments from unregistered users are subject to editor approval. Log in or register now to post a comment immediately.
Be the first to comment on this story