Kudzu Review

The Kudzu Review is Florida State University's undergraduate journal, publishing biannual magazines that feature several kinds of creative works: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. I was featured in an issue one semester and became a staff member in another.

"Head in the Clouds"

Being Featured in
Issue #73

"Headed to Bourbon?"

In my throwing-things-at-a-wall-and-hoping-one-sticks phase, I spammed Kudzu Review with the max amount of visual art submissions I could submit. (It was five.)

Months later, having tricked myself into forgetting about it, I got an email.

"Congratulations! Your pieces have been selected to appear in our Fall 2024 issue. Head in the Clouds has been chosen as this year's cover art!"

Score.

Becoming a
Staff Member - PR

In Spring 2024, I applied for a staff position...and got my last choice in section placement. Hoping for the layout team, I got put into PR and Marketing instead. But hey, I still genuinely enjoyed my experience and am proud of all the mini creative projects I was able to take part in.

During my time in Kudzu Review, an assignment was due every week. Sometimes they requested merch designs, other times they roped us into walking all around campus to distribute flyers.

Mostly, they had to do with promotional materials involving social media. Particularly, instagram.

I...only had instagram to keep up with global artists and college clubs.

I learned quickly.

I helped create Instagram posts, from story highlights to reels. I worked alongside teammates with years of experience in their high school news station and teammates who have never thought to sync audio in their life. We all learned from each other.

All in all, I got to play around with a lot of film equipment and video editing software. I was introduced to the process of a "shoot" (storyboarding, blocking, rehearsing, etc.) and took part in multiple 'man on the street' interviews.

It was fun, and I look back at my amateur projects rather fondly.