Cardinal Sins Rita Collins

Spotlight on… Cardinal Sins Rita Collins, Co-editor

Creative writing major and psychology minor Rita Collins always believedwriting to be a powerful form of human expression, and as co-editor-in-chief of Cardinal Sins, Collins saw first-hand just how compelling that expression can be. Collins began her journey with Cardinal Sins, which is advised by English faculty member Dr. Kimberly Lacey, in the Fall 2017 semester as part of the general reading committee. By the next semester, Collins was serving as fiction editor, and following former editor-in-chief Mackenzie Bethune’s graduation in May 2019, Collins stepped up to take on the role of editor-in-chief, along with then-flash fiction and creative non-fiction editor Hannah Somalski. Collins described her time with Cardinal Sins as her “first real first-hand experience” with publishing, noting the work was invaluable. Collins viewed Cardinal Sins as an opportunity to gain experience in creative writing, editing, and publishing, beyond what is offered in the classroom. In addition, Cardinal Sins was instrumental in Collins’s personal growth. Collins described her earlycollege self as someone who rarely got involved with extracurricular activities. When she first joined the reading committee, Collins never imagined she would one day be the co-editor-in-chief, but after two semesters in the role, she couldn’t imagine it any other way. Although collaboration and a strong team spirit made working with Cardinal Sins a true pleasure, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Collins’s leadership faced a steep challenge during the Coronavirus outbreak. The campus’s move to online instruction and the suspension of large gatherings occurred shortly before the reading committee was set to meet for the final rounds of judging. Instead of the usual interaction and discussion, the Winter 2020 semester’s concluding meetings had to occur remotely. Distribution was also marked by difficulty: the SVSU Graphic Center was unavailable to produce print copies, and the staff had no way of distributing copies of the journal across campus—even if they had, there were very few students on campus to receive them. Although the challenges were unprecedented, Collins had faith in the ability of her readers and editors to overcome. Indeed, Collins saw these events as an opportunity for additional growth into an online platform. In the past, Cardinal Sins had featured only a few pieces online as highlights of the journal, but with the restrictions of the virus, the staff was pushed to consider virtual distribution. Though Collins’s own preference is for holding a book in her hands rather than seeing it on a screen, she maintained that the priority of Cardinal Sins was to reach readers despite the circumstances, and the online format could make this possible. In the face of these challenges, Collins’s passion for developing as a writer and an editor never wavered. Instead, Collins’s interest grew to encompass issues of access and accessibility, such as how individuals process information; for example, as much as she enjoyed reading, Collins often found herself unable to engage with audiobooks in the same way. Realizing this led toa desire for expanding access to physical books—and for becoming a certified Braille translator. Collins noted that Braille resources are all too few, and she is passionate about helping to fill that void. Linked to her love of literature, Collins has become interested in translating longer works, such as novels and textbooks, but she also wants to focus on day-to-day texts, such as signs, menus, and official documents. Although Collins completed her studies in Winter 2020, she still has a vision for Cardinal Sins. As a native of Saginaw, Michigan, Collins looks to a time when Cardinal Sins would go back to its roots as a presence in the local community. Although proud to be part of a publication representing writers from across the nations, Collins hopes to see more work representing lives and

interests not just of SVSU students, but of the broader communities throughout the Great Lakes Bay Region; a blend of both local and global submissions, she believes, would round the journal out to its best form yet. The following piece by Ben Hall represents some of the global work published in the Winter 2020 issue of Cardinal Sins. Collins says this piece was one everyone on the reading committee knew they wanted to include from the moment they first read it.

Winter, 2010 by Ben Hall

So you wrote a book for all the rabbit-faced men that gave you slurry advice on love. Once, you’d asked for mine. I started climbing buildings the night Dad came home with cancer. And though by now it’s just a peppering of memory, crudding up the web of some house spider, there’s still the little matter of the note I left on top of my old high school the December after our conversations ended, lying on my back as flecks of Mississippi gravel froze into my hair. The geese that passed were throating encouragement (possibly criticism) as Ryan Adams saddened in my ear, and I, a little drunk on booze, on a febrile thirst for miracles, was thinking that, if I could tune myself to the right frequency, I might slip through, might ink into some other world where (probably) it still hurts but for better reasons. I missed you this time I love you Maybe you thought I couldn’t understand. But we were all looking for ways to discharge, to unburden this terrible love we’re born with. You— into your pages, your huevos motuleños, the men you led to your table. Me— along the edges of a knife and across the rooftops of stars that were soundlessly beckoning, You don’t need to leave just yet. There’s hours left till morning.

Reprinted by permission of the author.