The SLCC Community Anthology is currently accepting submissions for its fourth annual edition.
All current and former students, faculty, staff, alumni and any other member of the community with a connection to Salt Lake Community College — even people who haven’t come to SLCC yet — can submit poetry, short stories, flash fiction, essays, memoirs, visual art photography and other similar creative work.
“I think the best thing [the anthology] does is it stresses and brings into being the open door of the college,” says Lisa Bickmore, an English professor and assistant associate dean at SLCC. “People — prospective students — come to the college, but they also leave, [and] return, like waves in the ocean. Many staff and some faculty were once students at SLCC. The anthology is an exemplar of that open door.”
The anthology submissions are collected, produced and presented in a print book by the Publication Center and the fall Publication Studies class.
Bickmore proposed the SLCC Community Anthology when she became the college’s poet laureate. Bickmore and her colleague, Charlotte Howe, have previously advised on this publication.
Brenda Sieczskowski is serving as faculty advisor for the fall 2019 term.
“The SLCC Anthology is an especially inclusive publication because it represents and publishes creative work from such a large cross-section of the SLCC community. With the anthology, we hope to present a rich and diverse look at writing and visual artwork created by our community,” Sieczskowski says.
The Publication Studies class works closely with the Publication Center to create the SLCC Community Anthology each fall, while the spring class creates the books for the Chapbook contest winners. The classes use center’s printers, binders, trimmers, software, book-crafting materials and other publication tools and resources to gain real, practical knowledge about publication and book-making processes, supporting the voices and vision of SLCC and its community as they learn.
Brooke Ross, a general studies student, is taking the class this term for the second time. She first heard about the Publication Studies class in one of her other classes and thought that it sounded interesting because she considers herself to be a very hands-on learner. She loved the spring class and working with Howe on the Chapbook so much that she knew she wanted to take the class again and be part of the team to make this year’s Community Anthology.
Ross and Sieczskowski both have high hopes for the new edition of the book and for the future of the collection and the Publication Center.
“I hope that the work we do on the anthology this semester, and in the future, continues to build on this mission — to provide a home for the distinctive creative work being produced by the SLCC community and to expand on ideas about the material forms this home can take,” says Sieczskowski.
Ross hopes it will be a good experience.
“And by that I mean — be a horrible experience: problem solve, figure out why something isn’t working, work as a team, as a class, to make it all come together and represent the community in a good creative way,” says Ross.
Anyone interested in submitting to SLCC Community Anthology can send their creative works to slcc.anthology@gmail.com. The submission deadline for fall 2019 is Monday, Sept. 23.
