Some of the student work in this year鈥檚 volume puts an artistic focus on the pandemic.
will release its 72nd edition at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 6, outside the Center for the Arts. Everyone is invited to pick up a free copy and celebrate with the editors, readers and writers who helped shaped this year鈥檚 journal. Some authors will also offer readings of their work.
And if you can鈥檛 make it to the release party, then head to the Oak House between noon 鈥 3 p.m. Sunday, May 9 to get your copy and a voucher for a free drink. Editions of Colonnades will also be available at several locations across campus.
鈥淚鈥檓 really pleased with it,鈥 said Abby Fuller 鈥21, Colonnades鈥 editor-in-chief. 鈥淚鈥檓 really excited about how it visually all comes together. It looks really seamless to me, and I鈥檓 pleased with the quality of work and submissions we had.鈥
It鈥檚 best not to call the journal鈥檚 focus this a year a theme, but rather a through line. Fuller said reflections on COVID-19 are evident within the pages, particularly in the art.
鈥淚 would say that not every story or art piece is about COVID, but they were all written and edited under that context, so the cover of the journal is COVID-specific,鈥 Fuller said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot more visual art about it. Those artists can try more things and process it more quickly than writers. I鈥檓 willing to bet writers in future issues will still be thinking about it and dealing with it.鈥
Colonnades editors and readers had to grapple this year with how to work during a pandemic. Putting together a yearlong compendium of fiction, nonfiction, photography, art and poetry was made more challenging because members of the organization initially weren鈥檛 meeting in person.
Some of that wasn鈥檛 necessarily new for Colonnades 鈥 must of the design for previous year鈥檚 journals has been done remotely. But Fuller said the strain of communicating over email became too much. The top editors simply needed the space to meet in person and make decisions.
鈥淭here was a learning curve about how to collaborate with someone else because we were going back and forth about the cover and other things on email,鈥 Fuller said. 鈥淭here was a disconnect because it didn鈥檛 seem like we were creating something together.鈥
So quickly, Fuller changed course, and she, her managing editor, art director and design editor began gathering in classrooms to hash out design choices and organize the final product that would become this year鈥檚 edition.
鈥淚t was better when we figured out how to safely work together and get that face-to-face interaction,鈥 Fuller said. 鈥淎nd now, the quality of work we have in the journal is very strong.鈥