The student literary magazine is optimistic about its future.
The anniversary year – 2014 – marked the beginning: With Goethe University Frankfurt looking back on 100 years since its foundation, Johnny was the product of a seminar at the university’s Writing Center, whose aim was to publish a magazine to mark the centenary year. After that, the students behind the special issue continued the magazine by themselves, although it remains affiliated with the Writing Center.
Susanne Herrmann, a German studies and cultural anthropology student and an established member of Johnny’s editorial team since the fifth issue, smiles a little when she contemplates the layout of the first issue, entitled “Yesterday This Morning”: “It has all the charm of a school magazine.” The issues since then, by contrast, clearly show the magazine’s evolution into a publication meeting professional standards. Yannick Hohmann-Huet, another member of the editorial team, is studying for a teaching degree (majoring in German, chemistry and philosophy) and says: “As with many things, the editorial team first had to acquire layout skills. In most cases, it’s learning either by doing or from our peers. For us, it’s also important to constantly expand our know-how through further training. For example, we regularly attend workshops so that we can offer our authors professional editing.” Nevertheless, Johnny remains a student magazine that offers its contributors plenty of room to flourish. Experienced editorial team members teach new colleagues the necessary expertise. Incidentally, non-students can also submit articles, whether from near or far. “We’ve already had contributors from Austria, the Netherlands and recently even from Ukraine,” reports Susanne Herrmann. The editorial team is keen to highlight that every article submitted is anonymized, then read and evaluated by two team members independently of each other. Today, around half of all submissions can be included in the magazine, even though it now has more pages. “We receive a lot of submissions and have to see, of course, what fits and what doesn’t,” say Susanne Herrmann and Yannick Hohmann-Huet. As a general principle, however, they want to encourage all those entering the literary arena for the first time. And those who didn’t make it the first time around might be successful in the next call for submissions.
Transparency and participation also play an important role when it comes to identifying themes for the magazine: The editorial team normally offers three topics to choose from and then lets the Johnny community decide. The topics are intentionally broad so as not to restrict literary creativity: “Turning Points”, “Metamorphoses” and “Dreams”, to name just a few, offer scope for a plethora of literary ideas. Johnny is financed from the university’s QSL project funds (“Quality Assurance in Teaching”). Members of the editorial team organize their own creative writing workshop at the Writing Center. Many students stumble across the literary magazine via the Writing Center’s offer. New contributors are always sought. “We have a lot of fun designing issues. But you can also gain a lot of practical experience for your later career. And working on Johnny can also be credited as an internship,” says Susanne Herrmann. Some former members of the editorial team have successfully made the leap into the publishing world. Johnny has meanwhile become a “well-known face” in Frankfurt’s literary scene. After all, the team has already had the opportunity to present itself at two editions of the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Frankfurt Book Fair). “We’ll be there again this year,” announces Yannick Hohmann-Huet.
To close, here are a few impressive figures: Since the magazine was founded, 96 students have been part of the editorial team and contributions from a total of 556 authors have been published. The editorial team is currently thinking about bringing the alumni network even more on board. The anniversary issue of Johnny, entitled “Hidden Things”, was fittingly celebrated on June 21 on Westend Campus with a reading and a party.
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More information about “Johnny”:
Goethe-University — Literary magazine Johnny (uni-frankfurt.de).
