our mission
Catch is a literary magazine funded by Knox College and run by an entirely student-led collective. In our bi-annual publications, we solely publish undergraduate work, including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, drama, music, and art. Our mission is to publish engaging and diverse art from our peers and build a literary community alongside our contemporaries where we can share our work freely and with celebration.
Originally established in 1922, we officially became known as Catch in 1969. One theory on how we got our name comes from Nicholas Brockunier '69, who believes it may have originated from "the idea of catching good written work (as a fisherman or a ball player)."
Learn more about other Knox College publications here! Feel free to email catchmag@knox.edu with any questions and the current Editor in Chief will be happy to respond!
our staff
Jes Shannon — Editor in Chief
It is Jes’ second year leading Catch, and she is honored to get to help bring Knox’s literary community together. As a senior Creative Writing major from St. Louis, Jes loves all things animals, art, and advocacy.
Sydney Shaughnessy — Art Editor
Sydney is a senior completing his computer science major and a certified art enjoyer. He is very excited to be returning to Catch as Art Editor (Dreamborn god of the beyond), as he does not miss North Carolina's humidity. You can often find him frolicking in the snow during the winter months or rereading the resident evil 2 wikipedia page.
Noam Mendelsohn Weininger — Fiction Editor
Noam is a sophomore this year, much to everyone's disappointment. He thinks he probably works at Catch, but he's also halfway convinced that they're running some sort of experiment on him. In his free time - of which he has little—he enjoys running around campus, screaming loudly.
Jax Maharry — fiction Editor
Jax is one of Catch’s fiction editors, as well as a team lead/trainer at the Knox makerspace. She hopes to double major in creative writing and Asian studies. In her free time she can be found juggling, writing, and learning how to dance. She is from Chicagoland, and is looking forward to reading all of your amazing submissions!
Jude g. Reed — Music Editor
Let’s imagine for a second that you’re Jude Reed. And let’s just say, for the sake of the argument, everyone else is Jude Reed, and then maybe I’m everyone else, or maybe nobody. You and everyone you know would be from St. Louis, Missouri. You and everyone you know would play in a band called LEMONS and make your own music on the side for shits and giggles. You and everyone you know would be capable of playing bass guitar and writing screenplays and running your greasy hands through your voluminous hair and saying: “Yes, today I feel like myself, myself who is Jude Reed, who is everyone else.” Now imagine that everyone in the world (yourself included) is themselves (and yourself) and not Jude Reed. That’s the world we live in today.
Smith Henke — Poetry Editor
Smith Henke is a senior creative writing major from Columbia, Missouri. They are one of two poetry co-editors for Catch, and are looking forward to reading student work and having the opportunity to engage with the Knox literary community on a deeper level. When they aren't reading or writing, you might find them taking a walk around Galesburg, eating cheese and club crackers, or attending RA meetings.
Guy McEntarffer — Poetry Editor
Guy McEntarffer is one of the poetry editors for Catch, and an organic, all natural, corn-fed Nebraskan. In his free time, Guy plays jazz piano and reads both poetry and literature, with respective favorites being Richard Brautigan and William Faulkner. Guy is also a member in good standing of the transnational hacky-sack community.
gray dawson — Creative Nonfiction Editor
MJ Russell — Drama Editor
MJ is a sophomore Creative Writing & English Literature major and the Drama Editor for Catch. They like to read and write about lesbians, mostly. MJ is from Appleton, Wisconsin, and likes to crochet, play Pokémon, and collect anything related to frogs. They have around 200 frog plushes, sculptures, jewelry pieces, shirts, accessories, and trinkets as of their last count. Their favorite playwright is Shakespeare, which sounds pretentious and lame but he's really cool they promise. MJ secret fun fact is that the M stands for Max and the J stands for Just a silly guy.
Arwa Ayaz — DEsign Editor
Arwa Ayaz is a sophomore from Lahore, Pakistan, joining catch as a designer this year and is very excited to work on the magazines!
Maya Dengler Kaufman — DEsign Editor
Maya is excited to return as design editor this year! She's a second year fine arts/graphic design major from Goshen, Indiana and loves all things creative. When she's not designing or hanging with her cats, you'll probably see Maya playing saxophone for the Cherry St. Combo. She looks forward to working with all the other creatives on the Catch team this year!
Quinn Mika — Design Editor
Quinn is a studio art major from Plainfield, Illinois and is so excited to be joining Catch as a design editor!
Our history
Published by Knox College, Catch has been an undergraduate magazine for more than 100 years, making it the oldest continuously published literary journal in the country. Catch is entirely run by Knox students, from the submitters to the editors and designers. All content is original undergraduate student work.
Our faculty advisor once said that Catch is something like a "snapshot" of the various things created and loved at Knox College. Our purpose is to make student voices heard, and we hope that our magazine fulfills a small part of this goal. Catch may be a drop in an ocean of arts magazines, but we believe there is magic in putting love into such little things.
Catch is historically a literary magazine, but in our pages your will find all forms of creative writing, film, visual art, and music—in short, we covet anything (everything) resembling a genre or form that you are generous enough to share with us. We hope to receive and have been privileged to publish creations by and about diverse identities and perspectives, but we are always seeking to broaden our horizons.
accolades
In recent years, Catch has won numerous national and international awards. These include:
Associated College Press Magazine Pacemaker Awards and Finalist Recognition (Vol. 34, Vol. 35, Vol. 36, Vol. 37, Vol. 40, Vol. 48, Vol. 57.2)
2014 National Program Directors' Prize from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (Vol. 46)
2003 National Program Directors' Prize from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (Vol. 34)
In keeping with tradition, we are honored to continue Catch's legacy of recognition. In 1983 and 1986 respectively, Catch was awarded The CCLM National Collegiate Competition's First Place Award (which would later become the National Program Directors' Prize from AWP).