No. 27 applications are now live here.
Applications close Friday, September 4th @ 11:59 p.m. CST.
1/ This issue’s steering themes.
GUIDE TO NO. 27
For its twenty-seventh issue, SPARK is uncovering the many different versions of you. Who do you want to be, and who are you really? How often do the two align? Every individual owns more than one face; to be authentic is to be fluid. We wish to know where the divide between you and the performance of you lies, if the difference even exists. Issue No. 27 seeks to understand what the self truly is, both in the spotlight and in the shadows.
The curtain is rising, and you’re center stage.
LITERARY INSPIRATIONS
DAVID LYNCH’S MULHOLLAND DRIVE / DAVID LYNCH / CAROLINE POLACHEK’S DESIRE, I WANT TO TURN INTO YOU / THE BLISS MONTAGE BY LING MA / FUN HOME BY ALISON BECHDEL / THE BELL JAR BY SYLVIA PLATH / BARRY JENKIN’S MOONLIGHT / LCD SOUNDSYSTEM’S THIS IS HAPPENING / DARREN ARONOFYSK’S BLACK SWAN / DETRANSITION, BABY BY TORREY PETERS / BOB FOSSE’S ALL THAT JAZZ / “BEEN IT” BY THE CARDIGANS / RIDLEY SCOTT’S BLADE RUNNER / VĚRA CHYTILOVÁ‘S DAISIES / DAVID LYNCH’S ERASERHEAD / THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE / MARK WATERS’S MEAN GIRLS / JAMIE BABBIT’S BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER / THE BLUEST EYE BY TONI MORRISON / MITSKI’S LUSH / SOCRATES / WAR OF THE FOXES BY RICHARD SIKEN / JUDITH BUTLER / GRETA GERWIG’S LADY BIRD / AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED BY ANNE CARSON / ANNABELLE DINDA’S SOME THINGS NEVER LEAVE / TOM STOPPARD’S ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD / LORDE’S VIRGIN / OSCAR WILDE / OLIVIA WILDE’S THE INVITE
DAVID LYNCH’S MULHOLLAND DRIVE / DAVID LYNCH / CAROLINE POLACHEK’S DESIRE, I WANT TO TURN INTO YOU / THE BLISS MONTAGE BY LING MA / FUN HOME BY ALISON BECHDEL / THE BELL JAR BY SYLVIA PLATH / BARRY JENKIN’S MOONLIGHT / LCD SOUNDSYSTEM’S THIS IS HAPPENING / DARREN ARONOFYSK’S BLACK SWAN / DETRANSITION, BABY BY TORREY PETERS / BOB FOSSE’S ALL THAT JAZZ / “BEEN IT” BY THE CARDIGANS / RIDLEY SCOTT’S BLADE RUNNER / VĚRA CHYTILOVÁ‘S DAISIES / DAVID LYNCH’S ERASERHEAD / THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY BY OSCAR WILDE / MARK WATERS’S MEAN GIRLS / JAMIE BABBIT’S BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER / THE BLUEST EYE BY TONI MORRISON / MITSKI’S LUSH / SOCRATES / WAR OF THE FOXES BY RICHARD SIKEN / JUDITH BUTLER / GRETA GERWIG’S LADY BIRD / AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF RED BY ANNE CARSON / ANNABELLE DINDA’S SOME THINGS NEVER LEAVE / TOM STOPPARD’S ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD / LORDE’S VIRGIN / OSCAR WILDE / OLIVIA WILDE’S THE INVITE
VISUAL INSPIRATIONS
VIRGIN BY LORDE / LUX BY ROSALISA / MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY BY KANYE WEST / BURNING DESIRE BY MIKE / UNTITLED MASTER BY KENDRICK LAMAR / RICK OWENS WOMENSWEAR FW15 / LANA BY SZA / VOLCANO BY EARTHEATER / BLUEST EYE BY TONI MORRISON / BLUE VELVET DIRECTED BY DAVID LYNCH / BIRTH DIRECTED BY JONATHEN GLAZER / 2024 MAISON MARGIELA ARTISINAL COLLECTION / THE NEON DEMON DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN / GIA DIRECTED BY MICHAEL CRISTOFER / STAR BY PETRA COLLINS / HELLO MY NAME IS BY NADIA LEE COHEN / RAVEN BY KELELA / MUSICAL MASSAGE BY LEON WARE / NO FUN/PARTY BY KARA JACKSON / BLOOD BY KELSEY LU / TRINITY BY EARTHEATER / LP1 BY FKA TWIGS / NIGHT TIME, MY TIME BY SKY FERREIRA / CHASING MOVING TRAINS BY ROY BLAIR
VIRGIN BY LORDE / LUX BY ROSALISA / MY BEAUTIFUL DARK TWISTED FANTASY BY KANYE WEST / BURNING DESIRE BY MIKE / UNTITLED MASTER BY KENDRICK LAMAR / RICK OWENS WOMENSWEAR FW15 / LANA BY SZA / VOLCANO BY EARTHEATER / BLUEST EYE BY TONI MORRISON / BLUE VELVET DIRECTED BY DAVID LYNCH / BIRTH DIRECTED BY JONATHEN GLAZER / 2024 MAISON MARGIELA ARTISINAL COLLECTION / THE NEON DEMON DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN / GIA DIRECTED BY MICHAEL CRISTOFER / STAR BY PETRA COLLINS / HELLO MY NAME IS BY NADIA LEE COHEN / RAVEN BY KELELA / MUSICAL MASSAGE BY LEON WARE / NO FUN/PARTY BY KARA JACKSON / BLOOD BY KELSEY LU / TRINITY BY EARTHEATER / LP1 BY FKA TWIGS / NIGHT TIME, MY TIME BY SKY FERREIRA / CHASING MOVING TRAINS BY ROY BLAIR
SAMPLE WRITING PITCHES
For Print writing applicants — try to not pitch stories too similar to these pitches. They are meant to serve as inspiration for your own pitches, both in terms of format and guiding themes.
DO NOT PITCH LIST
Photo: agafoshdi
on Pinterest
the chapel where time stands still
My grandmother sits upon a pew located dead-center in the room. She looks straight ahead, into 3 large, dark canvases. They appear black at first, but when you stare at them long enough, you can tell that they are rather a deep purple, a dull blue. She has been staring for so long that she sees something else entirely.
I have been visiting this chapel since I was young, and the energy has always been beyond anything I can encapsulate. A low humming constantly fills the air. Nobody speaks above a whisper. People of every faith are allowed to pray here, but it feels as though those prayers will never reach their intended source. They will stay right here, reverberating around a room beyond any one god.
I look at my grandmother, still sitting, still staring, and I wonder if she sees her mother in those canvases. Her mother was an artist, a creator of abstract pieces showcased worldwide. My grandmother followed in her footsteps. When her mother died by her own hands, like the man who created the pieces that decorate this chapel beyond time, my grandmother became a writer as well.
the chapel where time stands still is about art and death. It will follow two artists who found a way to represent their purest selves through abstract art: Mark Rothko and my great-grandmother. Progenitors of a medium that is still often disregarded and misunderstood, this story will navigate their choices to imbue their identities into shades of paint and charcoal. It will question what abstraction can teach us about life, grief, and ourselves.
By Senior Print Editor Danielle Yampuler
My grandmother sits upon a pew located dead-center in the room. She looks straight ahead, into 3 large, dark canvases. They appear black at first, but when you stare at them long enough, you can tell that they are rather a deep purple, a dull blue. She has been staring for so long that she sees something else entirely.
I have been visiting this chapel since I was young, and the energy has always been beyond anything I can encapsulate. A low humming constantly fills the air. Nobody speaks above a whisper. People of every faith are allowed to pray here, but it feels as though those prayers will never reach their intended source. They will stay right here, reverberating around a room beyond any one god.
I look at my grandmother, still sitting, still staring, and I wonder if she sees her mother in those canvases. Her mother was an artist, a creator of abstract pieces showcased worldwide. My grandmother followed in her footsteps. When her mother died by her own hands, like the man who created the pieces that decorate this chapel beyond time, my grandmother became a writer as well.
the chapel where time stands still is about art and death. It will follow two artists who found a way to represent their purest selves through abstract art: Mark Rothko and my great-grandmother. Progenitors of a medium that is still often disregarded and misunderstood, this story will navigate their choices to imbue their identities into shades of paint and charcoal. It will question what abstraction can teach us about life, grief, and ourselves.
By Senior Print Editor Danielle Yampuler
Photo: triple1964 on Pinterest
ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND ROT
Your bed is a grave, and I resign willingly, burying myself deeper into the sheets.
I can hear your faucet dripping.
From your bed, the clock reads two a.m.. I melt into your body like sticky honey, cling to your limbs the way dust stubbornly clings onto the blades of ceiling fans. On nights like these, you like to laugh and call me your koala. Sometimes, I secretly wonder if you think I'm more like barbed wire instead, piercing into your skin with a refusal to let you breathe.
I find myself in your bathroom just as we're about to go to bed as part of our well-rehearsed routine. I wet my toothbrush, slather toothpaste on its bristles, and look up.
In the reflection, my own face is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, all I see is you.
ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND ROT is about the quiet erosion of self within a relationship that is leaning towards codependent. It aims to explore what the self becomes when one’s life becomes too enmeshed with another’s.
By Associate Print Editor Jenni Wang
Your bed is a grave, and I resign willingly, burying myself deeper into the sheets.
I can hear your faucet dripping.
From your bed, the clock reads two a.m.. I melt into your body like sticky honey, cling to your limbs the way dust stubbornly clings onto the blades of ceiling fans. On nights like these, you like to laugh and call me your koala. Sometimes, I secretly wonder if you think I'm more like barbed wire instead, piercing into your skin with a refusal to let you breathe.
I find myself in your bathroom just as we're about to go to bed as part of our well-rehearsed routine. I wet my toothbrush, slather toothpaste on its bristles, and look up.
In the reflection, my own face is nowhere to be seen.
Instead, all I see is you.
ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND ROT is about the quiet erosion of self within a relationship that is leaning towards codependent. It aims to explore what the self becomes when one’s life becomes too enmeshed with another’s.
By Associate Print Editor Jenni Wang
The Nightingale
A year ago, laughably bored with my roommate, I scribbled lyrics over our favorite instrumental at the time, and ended up with a song called “The Wanting”. It took a stab at explaining a phenomenon that’s lingered over nearly my entire life, one I’ve aimed to keep at bay with a revolving door of distractions.
Growing up is relentless, a comfort when I’m desperate for self-exploration and a hindrance when it’s stability I’m craving. It’s as if the more I discover about the world, the less it becomes obvious exactly how I fit it in. Chasing new experiences, connections, and trivial pieces of pop culture have all been futile quests for permanence when adolescence, by nature, is a force of evolution.
The Nightingale will examine the phenomenon of rummaging through a series of novel experiences in hopes that at least one will leave me with a lingering sense of fulfillment, especially when the future feels uncertain. This is the aspect of the wanting that fears me the most, drifting from place to place for a forever remedy that can’t possibly exist. What can I cling to to keep me satisfied, and where can I call home when no destination seems suitable?
By Associate Print Editor Caleb Morrow
A year ago, laughably bored with my roommate, I scribbled lyrics over our favorite instrumental at the time, and ended up with a song called “The Wanting”. It took a stab at explaining a phenomenon that’s lingered over nearly my entire life, one I’ve aimed to keep at bay with a revolving door of distractions.
Growing up is relentless, a comfort when I’m desperate for self-exploration and a hindrance when it’s stability I’m craving. It’s as if the more I discover about the world, the less it becomes obvious exactly how I fit it in. Chasing new experiences, connections, and trivial pieces of pop culture have all been futile quests for permanence when adolescence, by nature, is a force of evolution.
The Nightingale will examine the phenomenon of rummaging through a series of novel experiences in hopes that at least one will leave me with a lingering sense of fulfillment, especially when the future feels uncertain. This is the aspect of the wanting that fears me the most, drifting from place to place for a forever remedy that can’t possibly exist. What can I cling to to keep me satisfied, and where can I call home when no destination seems suitable?
By Associate Print Editor Caleb Morrow
WINDOW SEAT
My passport is in my backpack three, four, five times. It is pressed up against the scanner, which I am not anxious about because I am sure I am not faking my identity. And I am. Sure I am not faking my identity, that is. I never weigh my luggage. It turns out perfect every time. Accidentally, I stick the tag adhesive-side-down, which is okay because it is now irreversibly attached to my suitcase. They’ll never lose it.
In the roof sits a little skylight. At just this time of day the light makes peachy flutters over everything, making the airport feel less like an airport, just for the moment. The woman says thank-you, you’re all set. My bag slip-slides away.
Airports are famously uncomfortable. Even more so for an inexperienced solo traveler. In WINDOW SEAT, I splice my own experiences between the bulleted demands of air travel in order to consider the distance between the person being demanded and the person I am. Ultimately, I aim to confront what about air travel can be so harrowing — and what we prove when we muscle through it.
By Associate Print Editor Katie Manz
- Check your bag.
My passport is in my backpack three, four, five times. It is pressed up against the scanner, which I am not anxious about because I am sure I am not faking my identity. And I am. Sure I am not faking my identity, that is. I never weigh my luggage. It turns out perfect every time. Accidentally, I stick the tag adhesive-side-down, which is okay because it is now irreversibly attached to my suitcase. They’ll never lose it.
In the roof sits a little skylight. At just this time of day the light makes peachy flutters over everything, making the airport feel less like an airport, just for the moment. The woman says thank-you, you’re all set. My bag slip-slides away.
Airports are famously uncomfortable. Even more so for an inexperienced solo traveler. In WINDOW SEAT, I splice my own experiences between the bulleted demands of air travel in order to consider the distance between the person being demanded and the person I am. Ultimately, I aim to confront what about air travel can be so harrowing — and what we prove when we muscle through it.
By Associate Print Editor Katie Manz
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE THEME?
Keep an eye on our social media for posts about in-person tabling and info sessions during the week of August 24th. You can also contact us at the following emails:
For creative application questions, contact directors at
creative@sparkmagazinetx.com
For writing application questions, contact editors at
editorial@sparkmagazinetx.com
For design application questions, contact directors at
design@sparkmagazinetx.com
creative@sparkmagazinetx.com
For writing application questions, contact editors at
editorial@sparkmagazinetx.com
For design application questions, contact directors at
design@sparkmagazinetx.com
For business application questions, contact directors at
business@sparkmagazinetx.com
For general inquiries, contact Evangelina Yang at
managing@sparkmagazinetx.com
To reach the Editor In Chief, contact Emmy Chen at
editor@sparkmagazinetx.com
business@sparkmagazinetx.com
For general inquiries, contact Evangelina Yang at
managing@sparkmagazinetx.com
To reach the Editor In Chief, contact Emmy Chen at
editor@sparkmagazinetx.com
BECOMING A PART OF NO. 27 STAFF
How to Apply:
1/ Complete the application here. You may only apply to three departments and if accepted, can hold a maximum of two positions.
2/ Before you submit, ensure that all Google files have been set to “Anyone with the link can view.” Due to the volume of applications we receive, any application we cannot fully access is automatically disqualified.
3/ Applications close Friday, September 4th at 11:59pm CST. No late submissions will be considered. If offered a position, keep an eye out on your email inbox for an acceptance letter and immediate next steps by Monday, September 7th.
1/ Complete the application here. You may only apply to three departments and if accepted, can hold a maximum of two positions.
2/ Before you submit, ensure that all Google files have been set to “Anyone with the link can view.” Due to the volume of applications we receive, any application we cannot fully access is automatically disqualified.
3/ Applications close Friday, September 4th at 11:59pm CST. No late submissions will be considered. If offered a position, keep an eye out on your email inbox for an acceptance letter and immediate next steps by Monday, September 7th.
Terms of Eligibility:
1/ You must be a registered undergraduate or graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin.
2/ You do not need prior editorial experience, but may be asked to produce a portfolio depending on the department-specific application.
3/ Upon acceptance, you must consent to signing a Work Release Form and Liability Release Form. This is so you can work on photoshoots and we can publish your work in print and online!
4/ You must be 18+ years old at the time of application submission.
5/ You must agree to uphold SPARK’s zero-tolerance policy and understand that failure to comply with our standards will result in immediate dismissal from staff.
1/ You must be a registered undergraduate or graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin.
2/ You do not need prior editorial experience, but may be asked to produce a portfolio depending on the department-specific application.
3/ Upon acceptance, you must consent to signing a Work Release Form and Liability Release Form. This is so you can work on photoshoots and we can publish your work in print and online!
4/ You must be 18+ years old at the time of application submission.
5/ You must agree to uphold SPARK’s zero-tolerance policy and understand that failure to comply with our standards will result in immediate dismissal from staff.
To offer a broad range of opportunities, SPARK is divided into four branches — EDITORIAL, CREATIVE, DESIGN, and BUSINESS — that all together house 13 departments. You can apply to any three of them and hold a maximum of two positions.
EDITORIAL
Departments: Print, Web.
Writers concept, pitch, and draft stories for our website, biannual print issues, and sometimes serve as ad hoc copywriters throughout the semester.
Departments: Print, Web.
Writers concept, pitch, and draft stories for our website, biannual print issues, and sometimes serve as ad hoc copywriters throughout the semester.
CREATIVE
Departments: Modeling, Photography, Styling, Set Styling, Videography, Hair & Makeup.
As members of SPARK’s largest branch, creatives work on- and off-set to produce editorial-level visual assets published on the website and in biannual print issues.
Departments: Modeling, Photography, Styling, Set Styling, Videography, Hair & Makeup.
As members of SPARK’s largest branch, creatives work on- and off-set to produce editorial-level visual assets published on the website and in biannual print issues.
DESIGN
Departments: Layout, Graphic Design.
Designers are in charge of magazine layouts, digital art, front-end web development, and producing other mixed-media assets for print and online publication.
Departments: Layout, Graphic Design.
Designers are in charge of magazine layouts, digital art, front-end web development, and producing other mixed-media assets for print and online publication.
BUSINESS
Departments: Social Media, Marketing, Events.
Business branch members plan and host events, manage our newsletter, create and organize SPARK merchandise, work with big fashion/makeup brands, and keep our social media up-to-date.
Departments: Social Media, Marketing, Events.
Business branch members plan and host events, manage our newsletter, create and organize SPARK merchandise, work with big fashion/makeup brands, and keep our social media up-to-date.
ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICY
SPARK does not and will never tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, class, national origin, religion, age, or disability. As a non-UT affiliated organization, SPARK’s Executive Board reserves the right to permanently dismiss any leadership or staff member whom it feels has failed to uphold SPARK’s standards of fairness, equity, and inclusion. We are under no obligation to facilitate an accused member’s defense or obtain permission from the university.
For more information about applying to SPARK, refer to our FAQ or contact us.
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