Lighted Corners Literary Magazine

Launched in 1981, Lighted Corners is an annual literary and arts magazine that publishes poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, fine art, and photography created by students of Mount St. Mary’s University. Lighted Corners holds memberships with the Columbia Scholastic Press Association, the Associated Collegiate Press, and the Society for Collegiate Journalists. Mount St. Mary’s University enrolls 1,889 undergraduate students.

Lighted Corners 2023

Lighted Corners 2023

Staff

Contributors

Lighted Corners 2022

Lighted Corners 2022

Staff

Contributors

Awards

Columbia Scholastic Press Association

Columbia Scholastic Press Association is an international student press association, founded in 1925, whose goal is to unite student journalists and faculty advisers at colleges through educational conferences, idea exchanges, textbooks, critiques, and award programs.

• Gold Crown Award, 2022
• Gold Medalist 2021, 2020, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2008
• Silver Crown Award 2021, 2014
• Silver Medalist 2018, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009
• Gold Circle Award 2020 to Tess Boegel, 2015 to Shannon Gilmore

Sigma Tau Delta

Nine students on the staff of Lighted Corners are members of Sigma Tau Delta, Alpha Phi Iota chapter, as is the magazine’s adviser and the nine-member Department of English faculty. Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honor Society, with over 900 active chapters located in the United States and abroad.

Delta Epsilon Sigma

Our contributors have earned recognition in Delta Epsilon Sigma National Scholastic Honor Society’s undergraduate writing competition. Delta Epsilon Sigma is a national scholastic honor society established in 1939 for students of Catholic universities and colleges in the United States.

• Claire Doll, 2022, First Place in Short Fiction for “Of Summer and Salt Tears”
• Claire Doll, 2022, First Place in Short Fiction for “Swimming Lessons”
• Claire Doll, 2022, First Place in Poetry for “This Life”
• Claire Moberly, 2022, Second Place in Poetry for “Snallygaster”

The Spring 2019 edition of Lighted Corners placed first in the nation for Literary Magazine Overall Excellence in a competition held by the Society for Collegiate Journalists.

plain china: the Best Undergraduate Writing

• “The Dawn” by Tess Boegel
• “Swimming Lessons” & “Sitting Under Starry Skies” by Claire Doll
• “Los Pensamientos de la Llorana” by Alyssa Pierangeli
• “Staring at my Bookshelf” by Angela Vodola
• “The Austrian Alps,” a poem by Ian Schirra
• “A Shadowy Figure,” fiction by Eileen Rosewater

The William Heath Award

The William Heath Award is an honor earned by the student who demonstrates outstanding achievement in creative writing.

For more than twenty-five years, Dr. William Heath taught American literature and creative writing at Mount St. Mary’s University. In 2007 he retired as a Professor Emeritus. His courses inspired much of the poetry and fiction that appeared in Lighted Corners since its inception in 1981. As advisor to Lighted Corners, he helped the magazine grow.

Heath’s most recent book, William Wells and the Struggle for the Old Northwest, recently won two prestigious Golden Spur awards from the Western Writers of America. Heath’s awards were for Best Western Historical Nonfiction and Best First Nonfiction Book. He is also the author of three novels Devil Dancer, Blacksnake’s Path: The True Adventures of William Wells, The Children Bob Moses Led, and a book of poems, The Walking Man. In 2016 Conversations with Robert Stone was published by the University of Mississippi Press.

Visit Dr. Heath's website for additional information. >

Recipients

• 2023 - Claire Doll
• 2022 - Betsy Busch
• 2021 - Alba Sarria
• 2020 - Breanna DeSimone and Cara Gose
• 2019 - Katherine Brittingham
• 2018 - Trevor J. Fulmer and Maggie McCormick
• 2017 - Joseph Theis
• 2016 - Samantha Solis
• 2015 - Kaitlyn M. Bryans
• 2014 - Bernadette Olivia Gorman
• 2013 - Melissa Caffrey
• 2012 - Karolina Gajdeczka
• 2011 - Erica Szalkowski
• 2010 - Chelsea Baranoski
• 2009 - Caitlin Finnerty
• 2008 - Annie Hilliard
• 2007 - Emily J. Catron

Policy Statement

At the end of the fall semester, students from across the university submit works that reflect diverse perspectives and themes. After removing the names of contributors, the Lighted Corners staff reviews submissions. The editors make final selections and design the layout for the magazine by striving to create a union between word, image, and theme.