FERRUM, VA (April 30, 2025) – Ferrum College’s literary and arts magazine, “Chrysalis,” celebrated Shakepeare’s birthday by hosting its spring publication reveal on April 23, in the Blue Ridge Mountain Room on campus. Editor-in-chief Scout Lynch, a senior English major, announced the prizes for writing, art, and photography, and called on contributors to present their work published in the spring 2025 issue.
“Chrysalis” is both a club and a practicum course for students who submit their own work and earn course credit for compiling, editing, and laying out the magazine each semester. They sponsor coffee houses several times a year for the college community, as well as the end-of-semester reveal. They encourage students, faculty, and staff to submit original work each semester and to read from their work and discuss visual artwork at the end-of-semester reveal.
The prizes for outstanding work in poetry, prose, art, and photography are listed below. Professional judges recruited by the advisor and editors are often alumni or former Ferrum College professors. All submissions are judged anonymously, so the same person can win more than one prize, if they are in different categories.
This semester the prose was judged by Audrey Flora ’02, who was an English major and works as a counselor in the Franklin County Public Schools. Shanda Boone-Hurdle ’04 , who teaches English in Suffolk Public Schools and is a published writer and a motivational speaker with her company Incomparable Destiny, judged the poetry.
Kaitlin Roeper ’18 judged photography. With a major in graphic design and a minor in marketing, she served as an editor for “The Iron Blade” and “Chrysalis” at Ferrum. She is a marketing coordinator at LGA Partners, a Pittsburgh architecture firm. The art judge, Professor Emerita Susan Mead, majored in art and sociology at Agnes Scott College and later helped found the Jacksonville Center, now the Floyd Center for the Arts. She has incorporated art and literature into nearly all her teaching—including 26 years of teaching sociology at Ferrum before she returned to her hometown, Lexington, Virginia.
Professor of English Katherine Grimes reflected on the growth of the magazine, which was an annual publication before she became the advisor in 2012. Some years earlier it began publishing art as well as writing.
“’Chrysalis’ began 55 years ago, in 1970. Most magazines for the first 45 years were less than half the size of ‘Chrysalis’ today. This semester we received about 150 submissions, so we could not print them all. Part of the increase is the result of photography submissions, as phone cameras have made taking pictures so simple. But part of it is increased interest in the magazine, for which we are grateful. We also appreciate our contest judges,” said Grimes.
This semester the digital version of the magazine, available from the college website, is longer than the print issue, because the staff decided to add more submissions to the website that could not fit in the printed publication. The cover photograph, titled As Time Goes By, is by Victoria Hood, a psychology major with an art minor.
“At Ferrum College, we take pride in celebrating the creative spirit of our students, faculty, and staff,” said President Mirta Martin. “The ‘Chrysalis’ reveal brings our community together to honor the artists, photographers, and writers who make our campus so special. I encourage everyone to join us to celebrate Ferrum’s creative talent.”
Prizes for spring 2025 issue of “Chrysalis”:
First Place Prose: Mattie Green for “Renovations”
First Place Poetry: Mattie Green for “My Mirror”
First Place Art: Victoria Hood for I Spy with My Little Eye.
First Place Photography: Mattie Green for Drop
Second Place Prose: Scout Lynch for “Middag Street”
Second Place Poetry: Robyn Taylor for “Run”
Second Place Art: Mattie Green for Triple Moon
Second Place Photography: Ruthie Richardson for Golden Rays Through the Forest
