A Brief History of The Stone Circle

In 1992, the director of the MCC library began a new tradition of celebrating art, music, and poetry every fall at MCC. The library supplied cookies, hot chocolate, and punch. Music instructors Bill Howard and Beth Ullman, along with some of their students, provided music. English instructor Jennifer Black ran a poetry competition among students, faculty, and staff. Art instructor John Chatmas coordinated contributions of student art work. A modest entry fee was charged for the event, with all proceeds going to "Storybook Christmas," a local charity that provides books for needy children in McLennan County. This annual event became known as "Casa de Café.";

The Stone Circle provides a creative outlet for students from all over campus. In the Fall of 2005, we will begin work on Volume 5, Issue Number 1. Won't you, as a student at MCC, join us? Send us your poetry and prose. Art in any media will also be accepted. Please visit the Submission Guidelines page for more information on contributing your creative talents. If you're interested in design and layout and would like to join the staff of Stone Circle, consider taking Arts 2313 Design Communications.

The first year of the event, Alan Berecka, a reference librarian at MCC, collected the poetry into an informal magazine called The Chapbook. In 1993, David England, then Director of Institutional Effectiveness, contributed funds to produce a slick magazine version of the art and poetry winners. Beginning in 1994, Jennifer Black, John Chatmas, and former journalism instructor Tom Buckner created the Casa de Café insert to MCC’s newspaper, The Highland Herald, containing the winning poetry and photos of artwork.

In addition, Jennifer Black and her creative writing students worked with Tom Buckner several spring semesters to create "Expressions," an insert to the Highland Herald containing winning poetry and art chosen by the students.

In 1999, English Instructor Jim McKeown took over the planning of Casa de Café along with the library staff. While the library was being transformed into the Learning Technology Center, Casa de Café was held in the old cafeteria space in the Student Center. The learning Technology Center opened in the January of 2002, and that Fall, Casa was moved to the rotunda where it belongs and where it remains.

In the summer of 2001, Don Fisher, of the Journalism Department, and Jim McKeown got together and proposed to the administration that a formal literary magazine for student creative efforts be established to publish the poetry and art of Casa de Café.

Donnie Balmos, Director of Fine Arts, Dean Buddy Powell, (then) Liberal Arts Director Kent Hoeffner, English Instructor Llonda Carriveau, and Andrew Murad from the Fine Arts Department, formed a committee and officially approved the idea. In addition, it was decided not only to publish the work from Casa de Café, but expand to a second edition in the Spring.

A contest was held to name the new magazine, and Melanie McCalmont suggested the winning entry: The Stone Circle. A committee formed of students from Sigma Kappa Delta, the newly formed English Honor Society, selected the winner. In submitting her entry, Melanie explained, "This name comes from the Scottish/Celtic manner of using native materials to gather and enclose things, which seems like what the purpose of the magazine will be." Over thirty great ideas were put forth, but The Stone Circle won unanimous approval.
Recently, Melanie has established a prize for the best photograph from each issue. The MCC Foundation is administering the prize of $180 to be known as the "McCalmont Award for Creative Excellence in Photography."

In the Fall of 2005, we established this website, and we began Volume 5 in a slick-paper, 8-1/2 by 11 inch magazine format. In the Spring of 2006, we added color reproductions of some of our photographs.

The Stone Circle provides a creative outlet for students from all over campus. In the Fall of 2005, we will begin work on Volume 5, Issue Number 1. Won’t you, as a student at MCC, join us? Send us your poetry and prose. Art in any media will also be accepted. For details on submitting written work, please contact Jim McKeown at (254) 299-8952 in the FOB, Room 113, or e-mail at jmckeown@mclennan.edu. For art work, please contact Glen Downing at (254) 299-8791 in the CSC, Room F-124, or e-mail him at
gdowning@mclennan.edu.