The student publications office at Boston University is simply like none other anyone has seen before. It does not have the familiar sounds of students bustling about, talking about tropes and headlines and tone. It does not have the scent of freshly printed magazines lingering in the air. Nor does it have the sounds of students typing away at their desks, editing and underlining until their fingers turn sore. It simply doesn’t. Because at BU, there just isn’t one.

What BU has instead is a singular person: Zachary Bos.

Now in his 30’s, Bos is unbashful when he speaks about the weight he carries for the student writing community. With over 20 years of experience as a media and writing professional, Bos has established himself as the sole supporter of student publications on campus. His history with the university is extensive. After receiving both his undergraduate degree and MFA from BU, he stayed on to support the writing community in several ways. These roles include being the Administrative Coordinator for the Core Curriculum, and the Advisor and Facilitator for BU Booklab. He is also the facilitator for several translating and editing workshops which take place every spring semester.

Bos’ demeanor is welcoming and his way of speaking slightly sarcastic but always light. Wearing a bright red BU jumper and large headphones to cover his ears, he appears highly educated about the history of publications at BU and rightfully opinionated about the several issues they have faced down the line.

“It tends to attract students that have a wide embracing love of the humanities and interdisciplinary learning, big ideas, creativity,” he said. "We got a number of publications launched, and as is natural for them, many of them closed before too long.”

As Bos states, there is no shortage of written work being created the BU. A short internet search will bring readers to a vast list of publications: some defunct, some revived, some new. The breadth of topics is also an advantage for readers. From earth sciences to feminism and astrology, there are journals and magazines for all kinds of topics one might be interested in. Some of the oldest publications currently include the Journal of Education at Wheelock College of Education & Human Development and The Beacon at the English Department. Recent revivals of older magazines are Clarion, Burn, Back Bay Review, and Pusteblume.

While most literary publications do not differ in the sort of writing they include, they are differentiated by the affiliations they have to their respective departments or to the workshop experience BU Booklab. Designed as a counterpart to student project experiences like AdLab and PRLab, Booklab provides material support in the form of facilities, access, email accounts, and permission to approach faculty for funding to students. Run solely by Bos, who provides editing and publishing related guidance, the workshop has seen numerous changes over the year.

After coming to BU in 1999 to complete his undergraduate degree, Bos was involved with Clarion, the longest running magazine at the time. He stayed on to act as an advisor to students under the now defunct name Boston University Literary Society. This name saw various changes as the project evolved: from the Office of Student Publications to the BU Student Press before finally settling on the BU Booklab just recently. Clarion itself experienced great success during this time as it was an officially registered organization with the Student Activities Office (SAO). This motivated Bos to take up several different publication projects such as Burn: the edgy creative writing magazine, Arché: a philoshopy journal, and Hoochie Reader: an anthology for feminism and intersectionality.

“We had a large production and meeting space, and things went very nicely for a few years,” Bos said. “It was so successful that the director of SAO at the time would advise students who came to them applying to register a student group for writing, editing, or publishing, to go speak with me.”

As per Bos, attitudes towards student publications on campus started to change during the presidency of John Silber (1971-1996). In an archived opinion piece from 1979 in The Harvard Crimson titled ‘War and Peace at Boston University,’ several authors discuss the numerous allegations that were brought against him. Not only was he tried in court for censoring the voice of student newspapers bu.exposure and the Daily Free Press, but he was also moved to be removed as president by over six-hundred professors from BU, M.I.T., Harvard, and other Boston-area universities. Among various other serious charges, Silber was continuously accused of taking away funding from student publications and censoring opinion pieces from students.

“This policy was during a time when the campus was quite disrupted by student activism,” Bos said. “And this policy was that university funding through SAO may not be given to ‘student journals of opinion,’ and that constituted newspapers, critical, scholarly or creative publications.”

The lack of funding during the Silber administration seemingly continued throughout BU’s history from then onwards. Magazines like Clarion and Pusteblume now operate under Bos’ guidance without much support from BU. There is no office, no faculty advisor, no monetary support that comes in regularly. However, this non-affiliation to the university leaves more options for guidance from literary professionals in the greater Boston area. As per Clarion’s website, ownership of the magazine was handed to Pen & Anvil Press in 2011. Starting in 2017, Clarion became a joint publication between the Booklab and the Pen & Anvil Press. Curiously enough, Zachary Bos is also the publisher behind the press. Using this amalgamation of resources, Bos seems to offer expert guidance and connections to students looking for opportunities in the publishing industry. To date, he reports hiring upwards of 50 students from BU and surrounding universities as interns to work on a variety of publications that the press publishes.

“Rather than going through the application process and hope you get in at Candlewick Press or AGNI magazine, I'll find out what your interests are,” he said. “Sometimes we even say, I'm going to give you some social capital and we'll give you a publication.”

As Bos speaks to his mentees about the kind of work they hope to embody in their publications, he exudes care and passion for their goals. There is no doubt that the students have immense trust and admiration for his work. Daniel Cardosi, a sophomore majoring in math and engineering, is a recent example of Bos’ role as a mentor. Cardosi is the Editor-in-Chief of Arché, a student-led journal of philosophy, and was also a contributor for the Core Journal for which he won the essay award.

“It's completely out of my element to me to be doing this as a cold, unfeeling engineer,” said Cardosi. “But mostly, in terms of what I like and from the heart, I just like English or literature more than engineering and math.”

Bos mentioned that was put in touch with Cardosi by Professor Daniel Green from the Core writing program. The Core Curriculum in BU’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is an interdisciplinary study in the liberal arts of core texts, art and ideas that help students engage critically with the world. With students from all different kinds of majors, perspectives, and backgrounds, Core is ideal for students who are still exploring their field of choice to major in. Those participating in the Core Curriculum, especially those enrolled in HUB CC192: Collegiate Publishing Workshop, used to come together annually to publish the Core Journal. Based on the strength of Cardosi’s creative work, Bos and Editor-in-Chief Vanessa Hanger decided to open submissions this fall to any student with affiliation to CAS.

“I think it kind of speaks to the flexibility of the programs,” Cardosi said. “Even though they don't have a creative writing program for undergrads, they might be willing to lend a hand to them [through these journals].”

Hanger, a junior majoring in Philosophy and Neuroscience, also speaks to the flexibility and diversity of these programs. She is bright-eyed and excited while speaking about her experience in collegiate publishing. Her hands do a lot more of the talking but she smiles reassuring at Daniel to confirm their shared experiences as students. Hanger explains that she decided to get involved with Core Curriculum because of the breadth of different fields and topics it offered. The appeal of smaller, discussion-based classes drove her to seek out the Core office her freshman year.

“I like reading classical literature, and I like being exposed to important thinkers through history,” she said. “I think that can be hard to come by in freshman courses at a large research university.”

While Core Journal was Hanger’s first hands-on experience in the publishing world, it certainly won’t be the last. In her job as the Editor-in-Chief, she enjoyed sending out call for submissions, marketing their website, and reading through student pieces once submissions had been collected. Although she expressed feeling out of her element in the creative writing field as well, she emphasized the diversity of thought in her editorial team as being the highlight on working to convene this publication.

Evidently, departmental publications like the Core Journal tend to have the support and guidance of their faculty advisors. This luxury doesn’t extend to most other literary mediums on campus. Another such example, The Beacon, is the sole publication to be currently functioning out of the English Department. As per their website, The Beacon ran from 1876 to 1951 and chose to publish a variety of student news, academic research, and creative work. After shutting its doors in 1951, it was only revived in 2019 by BU alum Jonathan Han (CAS’19).

Han, now working in Hong Kong as a technical writer, worked extensively within the student publishing community during his time at BU. Before reviving The Beacon, he worked as an editor for Clarion and the Core Journal, and also spearheaded the planning of the Northeast Student Publication Conference in 2018. Han’s motivation for restarting The Beacon was two-fold: one, to take it on as the end-of-semester project and two, to make a sustainable journal that was purely produced by the English Department itself. The one challenge? Finding good writers.

“BU has a lot of good writers, but none of them tend to show up,” Han said. “They don't show their work. They're not very good at knowing where to publish.”

That’s where motivation to have a clear affiliation to English Department came in. Creating a reputation for itself that would stand the test of time would ultimately establish The Beacon as ‘the’ publication for all creative writers. What helps is the support that the publication received from the department in terms of funding and guidance without any added bureaucracy. Han believes that the reason why some publications stop receiving support after being established is that administrators no longer believe that they need more help after being launched. The department simply assumes that the editors know what they’re doing after the publication has been in print. Why should they need more support or guidance?

Like Han, Bos believes there are several problems with the student publication operations at BU. He appears bothered at being sidelined by the administration but there is also acceptance in his voice. Why is there no centralized system for publishing creative work? Why is there no centralized advisor for all students interested in publishing at BU? Why is is that academic departments do not collaborate on the publishing process? These are all questions that Bos has come to terms with over the years.

“There are other campuses, such as UMass Boston, which give their student publications a dedicated office space year after year, so they have a lively existence,” he said. “Whereas at BU, this strange attitude towards student publishing is such that we have not ever enjoyed that kind of continuity of resource support.”

Bos’ attitude does not however echo through Hanger or Cardosi’s experiences. They seem content at having a passionate person like Bos in their corner. A mentor to current students and a friend to alumni, Bos does an impeccable job of carrying the weight of this community on his shoulders without making students feel like they must adhere to strict deadlines or syllabi. At the end of the day, he has found a system that works for his students. And his students admire him for it.

The future of Booklab, however, is ever evolving. The project remains in a transitory period between an organization that functions within departments, SAO, and BU to one that uses the Hub Cocurricular Experience model. As per the BU Hub website, Hub cocurriculars do not earn students credit hours but count towards the completion of Hub requirements. Bos’ intention is to file for cocurricular status for all the publications he works with. Since Hub requirements need to focus one specific area, each publication would file for status within a specific field. For example, Arché with philosophy, Hoochie Reader with women and gender studies and so on. Just recently, Bos managed to secure a donation of $10,000 from a prominent CAS alumnus to fund this transition.

In retrospect, Bos seems to be tying up loose ends and establishing a legacy for himself before he finally leaves BU. In the coming year, he plans to move all his BU Booklab activity to his own press and bookshop in central Massachusetts, Bonfire Bookshop. While many might think this is the end for Zachary Bos’ influence on the BU publishing community, Bos isn’t quite ready to abandon his student and alumni connections just yet. Through Bonfire, he hopes to keep working as a campus publishing consultant for BU as well as other universities in Boston.

“We carry on,” Bos said, with a satisfactory smile. “I think we found a model that works. The students will be allowed to pursue their vision without having to reinvent the wheel. So, I think it's a nice balance.”