The Bolo Tie Collective is a SAMU student group that strives to bring the MacEwan University community of passionate creative writers together. The group has published six anthologies — collections of student writing — since its inception in 2016. Each anthology has given young creative writers the opportunity to be published and to have their stories heard. The upcoming seventh edition, to be published later this year, is a unique opportunity for students across all disciplines to get their work out there. 

“MacEwan is overflowing with good writers, and we encourage and welcome all to apply just because we want to take advantage of this pool of talent that we have at our fingertips,” says Molly Staley, the president of The Bolo Tie Collective. 

The seventh edition of the Bolo Tie Anthology will feature creative non-fiction, poems, short fiction, and flash fiction stories. Still, the Collective is interested in expanding the current roster by adding opinion pieces, editorials, and listicles as publishing material. Each author will go through a three-stage edit until both the editor and the author are happy with the piece. Each piece will start with a substantive edit, which refines the basic storyline and characters, before getting into a copy edit that looks to correct sentence structure and formatting closer to the book’s launch. 

Not only do you get an opportunity to be published in an ISBN-registered book, but you also get to build your resume, learn about the editing and publishing process, and celebrate your hard work with a launch party afterward. 

So who can submit a piece? Not just English, Communications, or Creative Writing students but anyone: “(We have) nurses who write, business students who write, anyone can write, as long as they are willing to go through the editing process and have the time to commit to seeing the book to fruition. We want anybody to apply,” says Staley.

Submissions for the seventh edition of The Bolo Tie Collective Anthology are due Jan. 31, 2023.