Etchings Release Party
The University of Indianapolis English department will hold its inaugural end-of-semester event during First Friday, Dec. 6, at the Wheeler Performing Arts Center.
During the event, the university’s literary magazine, “Etchings,” will hold a reading party to celebrate the release of its 26th edition. There also will be readings by students in fiction writing and poetry courses and by a published local author. In addition, the independent press Vouched Books will have a booth.
At the release party, members of “Etchings” plan to talk about the process of gathering submissions and creating the magazine. Contributors to this edition will reading their published pieces, and an open mic will be available for others who want to share their work. This year, “Etchings” will be published twice a year, with one issue in the fall and one in the spring.
Senior creative writing major Wade Thiel is one of two editors-in-chief for “Etchings.” He said that this semester’s magazine did not have any real theme, and the staff members were able to have more influence over what was chosen.
“We [the editors-in-chief] didn’t really intervene in their selections for the magazine, so everything that’s in there is pretty much staff [picked],” Thiel said. “It’s an undergrad magazine, and I wanted the younger people in the class to be able to pick the material.”
Senior professional writing major and managing editor for “Etchings” Laura McGaughey said that the staff thought a good way to commemorate this change would be to change the venue of the release.
“We have thought about moving the release party off campus before, in the past, but we decided to make the move this year because ‘Etchings’ is already going through other big changes,” McGaughey said.
Thiel said that “Etchings” is working to be more consistent in the design of the magazine. He also said that they wanted to let the work speak for itself, so they did not do as much design work on the pages.
“One thing we tried to do is keep it similar to last year’s, too. So we kept the same size and much of the same design,” he said. “My thinking behind that is the literary magazines that you know of and hear about, they always look similar. So keeping the same size and design unifies it.”
Thiel said that he is looking forward to the reading because it is not just a campus event this year; it is more of a community event.
“I think the reading is going to be sweet. It’s at Wheeler, which is kind of cool. It always feels kind of silly to have it on campus,” he said. “… This will be different. It’s First Friday, so there’s going to be a lot of weird, artistic people around that area anyway.”
McGaughey said that she is looking forward to revealing the 26th edition of the magazine and hoping for a good turnout for the release party.
“I think that by moving the release party off campus and having the party on First Friday, we’ll hopefully draw in a group of people that have never heard of the magazine,” she said. “Plus, I think it is really exciting that people who may not even consider themselves writers are going to have the opportunity to share their work.”
