Stonehill's literary magazine to be revamped

By Audrey Sears 

Established in 1960 and newly digitized in 2023, The Cairn is Stonehill’s annual collection of poetry, drawings, photography, ceramics, music, and more. The 2025 edition is currently accepting submissions on its digital platform until April 11.  

Although the digitization has provided a new opportunity for diverse works, the website will see a complete revamp for next year’s edition, an effort led by computer science major Peter Johnstone ‘26. 

Johnstone is reformatting the website from a page-based structure to a post-based structure, which will let the submissions be the highlight of the website and make it easier to navigate.  

“Revamping the website for The Cairn is a ton of work, and I’ve been chipping away at it this semester. We were able to get the site up and running but want to roll out a redesign for the 2025-2026 edition. Hopefully, we can get another underclassman in the Lab as an intern so I can pass on the torch,” said Johnstone ’26.  

Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program, Amra Brooks,  

serves as the magazine’s faculty advisor and integrates The Cairn into her creative writing course, ENG 372, to teach students about the publication and review process.  

“Last year, the only ones that weren’t published were pieces that exceeded the length requirements. It really depends on how many pieces we get this year. We are hoping for a good number,” said Brooks.  

With help from Digital Scholarship and Research Librarian, Garrett McComas, the submissions are filed anonymously and reviewed by the ENG 372 class collectively.  

“I am hoping that the ability to include more kinds of work will open the door for some who want to share video, music, or sound pieces, or experimental texts that use images for example. We are really open to all genres. Last year we got more submissions than we had ever received, and that was thrilling to see students from other institutions send in their work,” said Brooks.  

Find more information at The Cairn website and visit the archives of previous editions online.