Mash together a young McSweeney’s, a Wholphin and a dash of The Sun, add a couple of underground record labels and a lot of youthful enthusiasm and you might get something close to Nudge, a new arts magazine being put out by UW students. Though the UW has no shortage of literary magazines, they tend to lean more towards the academic than the counter-culture, while Nudge seeks to draw artists together from all mediums to form a community.

“I started Nudge more or less because I wanted to have somewhere to submit my writing and because I realized at the time that I barely knew any writers at the UW,” said sophomore Claire Fox, the founder of Nudge.

“I was really excited to be involved with something so student and grassroots-oriented,” said Marianne Goldin, who worked as a sort of adviser and did the cover art for the first issue. “It is not as formal as other publications on campus.”

Fox spent the summer with “writerly types” and felt the lack of community when she returned to school. Realizing there must be other people who were interested in artistic and literary pursuits, and having their work published, she thought they could start working together.

“That idea felt nice, especially when it was oriented specifically at our school, so the potential community members could feel some sort of responsibility toward one another,” Fox said. “I’ve always said that the publication is second to the community, and we’ve really hung onto that idea.”

Nudge covers a wide range of the art world—fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, visual art and photography. In an ambitious move, they also accept submissions of music and film: the first issue comes with a hand-lettered disc in the back.

“I knew I wanted to include the bread and butter categories, but I also really wanted to include film and music no matter how much it cost,” Fox said. “There are some great filmmakers and musicians on this campus, and they need a place to show off their work as well.”

No comics were submitted for the first issue, but Fox was adamant about wanting them in the next issue.

Though Nudge published the vast majority of submissions this time around, the plan for the next issue is to put all of the submissions online, but publish only five submissions per category. Fox points out that those who want to be published in the next issue will have to be “innovative and ballsy.”

Submitting to Nudge can lead to a larger role in the development. “I submitted a poem and a nonfiction piece to the first issue, both of which were published. After that, Claire contacted me,” said Owen Curtsinger, the creative non-fiction editor for the second issue.

If you want to get a copy of Nudge, the magazine can be found at the Henry Art Gallery, Bulldog News and Left Bank Books. At five dollars a pop, these mini artist collectives are well worth the Lincoln.

Members of Nudge will be tabling outside the HUB for the next few weeks and will continue to sell issues at their events. If you want to get involved with the publication, check out their Facebook group for more information.

Nudge overlaps with other new arts organizations—they have support from ArtsLink and editors from a new poetry collective called Stray and are talking with the UW Film Club about organizing screenings. These groups are helping build a vibrant arts community at the UW, one that does not sequester artists in their majors or even in their main areas of interest, but encourages collaboration and the synthesis of ideas.