“You can’t Make Tasty Holiday Cookies without a Good Egg”

by Cheryl Dillon 

Many faculty, staff and students the 11^th volume of RMU’s literary magazine egg release amidst the backdrop of the Orland Park Campus’s festival celebrating“Cookies Around the World” with wedding cookies from Mexico, Walnut cookies from China,Maamoul cookies forRamadan, Rugelach Bars for Hanukkah andBeene Cookies for Kwanzaa.  The eggfeatures students’ creative writing fromall campuses.   The current volume, entitled “Shipping Out,” is unique from other editions because it is dedicated to stories, poems and photography of RMU students who served or are currently serving in the United States military.

Professor Baltrum and students at the egg's release on the Orland Park campus.

During the festival I spoke to Mr. James Baltrum, an English instructor and the new faculty editor of the egg,and asked why this subject was chosen. He stated, “That the genesis of this issue was initiated by the previous editor, Mr. John Flaherty, who is no longer with the University, so I was given the taskof bringing this edition to print and I think we did a good job with an important assignment.”

Mr. Baltrum also talked about the significance of the current issue’s s cover art, which he researched and decided would make a great cover for this issue.  He tasked the artistic designand layout of the issue to three Orland Park design students: Kevin Gross, Kristina Maki and Evalyn Armellino.  Kevin told me thathe “designed the cover and Kristina and Evalyn designed the inside of the issue, which has black and white photographs submitted by students while overseas on duty.” The photos as well as the stories depicting the soldiers’ lives in the military gives the reader a realistic view of life in the military and in a warzone.

In regards to the future of egg, starting in 2012, Baltrum suggested that egg will become a semi-annual publication. Baltrum stated that “The Fall issue will be an open topic, but starting with the Spring ’13 edition we will have a topical issue changing every year, military one year, sports the next, politics, family, etc. So, we’ll just see where the topics take us.”

In closing, if you are interested in submitting your poetry, short stories, photography or artwork to be in a future issue of egg, please review the submission process found on the egg’s website at http://www.robertmorris.edu/publications/egg and if you have any questions feel free to contact the egg editorial board at rmuegg@robertmorris.edu.