Every spring, “The Chestatee Review” publishes a new edition with writings, poems and visual art collected from University of North Georgia students who have participated in their annual contests the year before.
“The Chestatee Review” announced the winners of the contests from 2025 that will be featured in their next publication.
Every spring semester, there are three contests open to current UNG students: The Kathryn Hinds Memorial Contest, The John Ingrisano Memorial Contest and The Inman Quill Memorial Contest. In the fall, the two contests open to UNG students are The Gothic Writing and Art Contest and The Thomas Sauret Contest. Each contest has different genres that students can submit writings for.
This year English major Theodore Lopata won first and second place in the Thomas Sauret Contest for his poetry.
Lopata wanted to explore themes of “pre-grief” and intimacy. In his poem “More on Skin Cancer”, he shares that his family was confronting a cancer diagnosis while he was writing. He says, “The Lopatas are an estranged bunch, so I often fantasized about what that death would do to me and my siblings.”
In his poem, “Attachment Styles”, Lopata says the idea for the poem began with the image of a thimble, which he sees as an icon of over-cautiousness. He said, “I ended up thinking about how intimacy models in our family can harm our later relationships.”
Lopata shares that writing is personal for him. Being published in “The Chestatee Review” means others will read his work. He says, “This might sound selfish, but I guess I’m not really concerned with the reader’s response. I wrote these poems with either strong emotions or images in mind. I write for myself—as pretentious as that sounds.”
Although “The Chestatee Review” has been published since 1997, Lopata shares that he did not intend to submit his writings to the contests offered. He says, “I’m personally opposed to writing something for a specific submission. I think it puts pressure on the writing process and limits creative flow.” He shared that “More on Skin Cancer” was chosen for the magazine from a larger collection that he is working on. He said, “The collection is one ongoing poem I’m playing with.”
Lopata shares his greatest advice to students saying, “Read, read, read. It is impossible to be a good writer without first being a good reader.” Lopata says that while poetry comes naturally to him, he had to foster that ability. He says, “Read voraciously. Creative types are conglomerates of the best they’ve encountered, so don’t be afraid to take inspiration from others.”
“If every piece is an experiment, you free yourself up to become a combination of great things. There is no such thing as true originality, and thank God for that.” — Theodore Lopata, Senior, English Major
The next edition of “The Chestatee Review” will be published in April. For updates, the magazine has an instagram and hosts events throughout the year. To read older editions of the magazine, they can be downloaded from their website or the UNG Libraries.
“I think I’ve said my piece: read a lot, write a lot, and get experimental,” Lopata said, “I send my thanks to the talented folks working on ‘The Chestatee Review.’ The journal is a spectacular opportunity for students of all disciplines to get their work out there and learn the ropes.”
