Students, professors, hipsters and hipster-haters alike are set to come out and celebrate the release of the latest issue of Glass Mountain, UH’s national undergraduate literary journal.
The release party will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. at Antidote, a coffee house located in the Heights on 729 Studewood St. It offers a variety of drinks and snacks to indulge in while sitting back to enjoy readings from the journal’s contributors.
The soul of the journal lies in the undergraduate experience.
“Any time we put on a reading it usually serves two purposes: something like the launch of an issue, and spreading awareness of undergraduate writing,” said Glass Mountain’s fiction editor Brett Forsberg.
Glass Mountain is one of the few national undergraduate literary journals that publishes a wide range of genres including fiction, non-fiction, poetry and art. It also happens to have its core in the center of campus.
“Glass Mountain helps undergraduate writers get their work circulating in their local and national communities,” said Forsberg. “It helps build a writing community here in Houston.”
Forsberg said that the journal also helps undergraduates through programs like the summer writers conference Boldface, which offers the experience of graduate-level writing programs to undergraduates.
The journal was formed in 2006 by a group of UH students, and has made quite a name for itself since.
Some of the undergraduates who have taken part in past programs are featured in the latest issue, including authors Heather Pedoto and Reyes Ramirez.
“These stories are funny, eccentric and occasionally harrowing,” said Forsberg. “Expect to laugh and expect to learn something.”
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs aims to foster literary achievement and advance the art of writing.
“Glass Mountain has a panel at this year’s AWP in Chicago, where we deliver a presentation on the magazine’s effect on our local writing community and why that work is important,” said Forsberg.
“Consider also that Glass Mountain is staffed by volunteers. Everything we do throughout the academic year is solely to benefit our own community of writers.”
The journal has a constantly changing roster of dedicated students who work together to bring the magazine to life.
“This is my second semester with Glass Mountain. I just began coediting with Scott Chalupa and Steven Simeone,” said Forsberg.
“We hope to get another feminine influence in our upper staff soon. Luckily, we still have Lynn Voskuil as the faculty advisor.”
For more information, visit www.glassmountainmag.com
