With the revival of Sketch, Iowa State students will once again have a major forum for printing their creative work in a professional-quality journal of literature and art.

Ander Monson, graduate student in English and editor of Sketch, said Sketch has been a forum for student creative work since 1934.

“In those 64 or so years of mostly continuous publication, Sketch has published over 12,000 poems, 6,000 short stories and 6,000 pieces of visual art,” Monson said. “It is a creative print journal that has always been central to creative life at ISU and has provided a wonderful forum for students to publish their work.”

Monson said he recognized a vacancy in student publications upon arrival at ISU.

“The only place where a student could publish an explicitly artistic or creative piece of work was the Ethos creative issue,” he said. He said although some students have been published in ISU’s professional journal, Flyway, it is not designed for student publication.

“This seemed strange for a school with so many writers and artists,” Monson said. “And there are certainly artists and writers in the ISU community doing excellent and exciting work.”

Last year, Monson and three other graduate students in English founded a new on-line publication, knotgrass, to help fill this perceived gap in publications. However, they still felt a need for a printed publication.

“Having read about Sketch’s history through the English department, I talked to a few folks who were involved in its last publication and found out that the journal had been tabled for the last two years because of personnel problems,” Monson said.

“It only made sense that we would get it back up and running this year, extending the long tradition,” he said.

Monica Kamps, graduate student in English and organizational editor of Sketch, said she believes it is vital to provide a venue to students on campus where they can publish their work and have the experience of seeing their work in print.

“It can be so encouraging to a writer or an artist to be able to share their work in a publication like this, and it is encouraging to the whole campus and community to see what students at ISU are producing,” Kamps said. “The return of Sketch will hopefully mean a renewed enthusiasm on this campus for art, both written and visual.”

Kamps said Sketch will be a quality publication in which ISU students will be proud to have their names appear.

Monson said Sketch will print two issues, one to be released early in the spring semester and one to be released at the end of the spring semester. He said Sketch also will facilitate readings and perhaps a gallery showing of some student artwork.

“The submission deadline for the first issue of the 1998 to 1999 school year is in early November, and we are accepting submissions of all types and genres in our Ross Hall mailbox, 206 Ross Hall,” he said. “We also plan on having a submission box in the Design Building somewhere, but this still needs to be worked out.”

Monson said Sketch is funded through The Writers’ Bloc, an organization for anyone on campus interested in writing. The Writers’ Bloc sponsors three major projects: Sketch; knotgrass, ISU’s on-line journal of arts and literature; and Word Up!, an open-mic and scheduled poetry/fiction/nonfiction/etc. reading series.

The Writer’s Bloc is funded through the Government of the Student Body as a registered student organization.

“We are looking for more people to get involved both editorially and with layout/design as soon as possible,” Monson said. He said interested students can e-mail him at [email protected].

“This forum is crucial for bringing together artists and writers across disciplines and majors into a more cohesive creative community,” he said. “It also provides ways for students to get experience on working hands-on with a well-recognized creative publication.”