Butler County Community College’s literary, art and poetry magazine, Facets, was created 40 years ago this year and it’s given many young writers and artists a chance to share their voices with the community.

It’s important for students who are learning who they are while they attend college and start making decisions about how they want to spend their lives to have such an outlet. For writers, photographers and artists, it’s hard to know what you’ve got until you’ve put it out there for people to respond to and for young people, it’s often hard to find a venue to do that.

Facets isn’t just an important student organization at our community college, it offers us all a chance to participate in helping artists prepare for the next stages of their lives. Every time we admire a painting, read a heartfelt poem, stare at a touching photograph or see ourselves in the writing of an poet, we’re able to hold a mirror up for the creators to see how their work reflects on them. It’s not a small thing.

When a photographer makes an image and shares it with us, they’re sharing a piece of themselves just as much as a writer penning a deeply personal essay. These are gifts they’re offering and we should treasure the creators as much as the content.

Facets is now accepting submissions of prose, poetry, essays, artwork and photography from students, faculty, staff and alumni for publication in the upcoming issue.

Facets has been a national award-winning, juried publication for more than 20 years and this year, part-time English instructor Maizee Zaccone is editor of Facets.

“It’s pretty open-ended, there’s no theme,” Zaccone said. “They can play with the medium they want to, the form. They can connect and have their submission put in kind of how they want.”

Students at BC3 are lucky to have so much freedom to express themselves in Facets and we’re lucky to have them here.

— KL