Two NIU students will be awarded today for hard work mixed with a touch of talent.

Poet Steve Harrington and fiction writer Thomas Taylor each will receive $125 from Towers magazine during a reception to be held at 2 p.m. in Reavis 204. The award money was donated to Towers from the NIU Foundation.

“As far as I know, this is the first time we’ve given cash awards away,” said Lynn Shanley, editor-in-chief of Towers magazine and an NIU student. “From now on, we’ll be giving away a cash award as an incentive to submit works to the magazine.”

Shanley hopes the magazine someday will be able to give an award for excellence in each of the four sections—fiction, poetry, nonfiction and art. Towers will generate its own funds for the awards.

Harrington’s poem and Taylor’s fiction were selected for publication by Towers’ staff, but their works were chosen as outstanding anonymously by members of the English department faculty. Shanley said that about 500 works were submitted to the magazine this year for consideration.

The number of works published each year depends on the amount of money the magazine has and the number of works submitted. “Every year, we can choose to publish once a year or twice a year. This year we decided to publish once to have more quality work in the magazine,” Shanley said.

This year’s magazine will feature about 100 pages of works.

Members of Towers’ staff are there on a volunteer basis. Anyone interested in joining next year’s staff can stop by today’s reception and ask Shanley questions. The meetings will also be advertised during the beginning of next fall’s semester.

Anyone interested in submitting literary works to be considered for publication can leave copies in the Towers mailbox in Reavis 216. Art submissions can be made in the Towers mailbox in the Art Building’s main office.