With this edition, we celebrate our fifteenth anniversary. Each year, The Peel could not accomplish so much without the dedication and support of so many people. Right now, I feel this sentiment more strongly than ever.
The Peel is a relatively young, dynamic organization, and each year a new team of editors and committee members brings their ideas and skill sets to the table. Since the first year of publication, The Peel has instituted multimedia facets, continued growth of our editorial board, and close relationships with other organizations at App State. We thank our predecessors and other contributing Peel alumni for making such a versatile and unique space for creatives, and we want to continue to build upon their legacy.
This year’s design was largely influenced by our theme, proximity. Within our socioeconomic climate and through our submissions — we wanted to showcase the connection between closeness and distance. Our design is reflective of this through the spatial relationship of shapes on our cover, and our typography indicates the bond of language and design.
Our theme is representative of the proximity to our first edition, and allows us to reflect on how far we’ve come over the past few years or how far we have regressed. This is why we chose our spotlight: feminine identity and reproductive rights. In light of Roe v. Wade being overturned and drag performance becoming outlawed in certain cities — we wanted to highlight autonomy over all bodies, the power of identity, and how our student body responds to these modern urgencies.
Our first two pages open the magazine with examples of proximity to each other — the world around us, and ourselves. We see forced proximity in “D is for Doctor.” We grapple with the proximity to death in “Little Joys.” We empathize with our lack of proximity to pieces like “Dirt” as we recognize our privileges. We learn to understand and unravel how close or far away we are from our current desires, needs, and fears throughout these pages. Despite some of our worst anxieties becoming reality, we can still stage our mini-rebellions, and enjoy the free play of mind, and the undogmatic spirit and awareness that the best art still provides. I hope what you see, read, and listen to stays with you long after you’ve put this book down. Thank you for supporting the creative community here at Appalachian. We hope you enjoy all of the art and stories that lie within.
Best,
Cayleigh Brown
Ed Board
Editor-in-Chief
Cayleigh Brown
Head Print Designer
Kara Hunkele
Web Editor
Savannah Waters
Sound Editor
Vivian Rogers
Poetry Editor
Brittany Helms
Fall Prose Editor
Madeline Scott
Zest Editor
Denise Casalez
Visual Editor
Hannah Little
Social Media Coordinator
Covey Holmes
Fall Social Media Co-Coordinator
Erin McIntyre
Advisor
Allison Bennett Dyche
PR Coordinator
Sydney Webb
Spring Prose Editor
Zoë Nagel