In 2019, Salt Lake Community College is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the award-winning Folio Literary Magazine.
Since 1999, Folio has been a spotlight for student artwork. Along with hitting the 20-year milestone, this semester, the student-run magazine has all new advisors.
SLCC English professor and new Folio advisor Kati Lewis says Folio aims to give a platform for the creative, intellectual work that students create every year.
“We’re marking Folio’s 20th anniversary of curating and publishing art, songs, writing, photography, and multimedia works created by SLCC students,” Lewis says. “We’re working on making our web version of Folio a dynamic platform to publish more multimedia, hypertext and other interactive works.”
Art major and Folio design editor Lyra Peterson says she’s most excited to see unusual submissions, especially animations and print-making art.
For students nervous to submit work, Peterson says, “Just because you think your art doesn’t work on paper, doesn’t mean we don’t want it.”
Students who have their work accepted will have the opportunity to say their work has been published in an award-winning literary magazine, and one talented student will get to see their art featured on the cover.
“When I was at SLCC from 2014 to 2017, I published 17 poems through Folio,” says Hannah Erskine. “It was the beginning of my journey as a published poet.”
Paul Almonte, who worked in the English department from 1994 to 2004 and co-founded Folio, speaks about his experience in the early years of the magazine and why it was started.
“At a time when opportunities for creative expression were more limited, we felt it was important to provide a venue for students.”
David Susman, Folio’s other co-founder and co-editor, says one edition that sticks out to him is the edition published shortly after 9/11.
“Clint Gardner [Program Manager of College Writing and Reading Centers] oversaw a kind of specialized volume of Folio that featured writings reacting to the events of that day,” Susman says. “I remember that edition to be poignant and brave in its suggestion that the first step in dealing with things was to avail ourselves in language.”
Students can visit the Folio website to see past editions and appreciate two decades of artwork submitted by students who found art to be the first step in understanding themselves and their experiences.
The fall 2019 submission deadline is Oct. 1, with the possibility of an extension for late submissions. There are no limits on the number of submissions allowed.
