By John Eberle
CI students in the Creative Writing Project course have been hard at work crafting the latest entry of The Island Fox. Kate Tomas, an English major with a Communications minor and this year’s solicitations director and reading event coordinator, sat down with The CI View to discuss the process leading up to the launch of the journal on May 4.
The Island Fox gives students an incredible opportunity to get hands-on experience in the book publishing process, working in a team- led format. “The Island Fox is our school’s literary journal,” Tomas said, “It does not just include short stories or poems or things like that. There’s also art, all kinds of different things, basically anything can be included to be considered for submission in the journal.”
The Island Fox embraces the exploration of themes that students choose to explore in their work. Students who wish to get published one day should take the class to learn more about the publishing process. “It’s a really cool opportunity to showcase the creativity of CI’s campus and a good opportunity to highlight the English department,” said Tomas.
The English Program at CI is relatively small compared to other programs which makes the launch party event all the more important for CI. CI gives the English Program an excellent opportunity of hosting a party to celebrate the release of the CI literary journal. “It was really a cool event to plan. Me and my other event coordinator, we started a couple months ago and just figuring out details of the venue.” Tomas said. The Island Fox staff reached out to Studio Channel Islands Arts Center to host the event.
Now the staff are in their final stages of finalizing the details of the event. “Then we just had to plan, budget, and food for the event. “I think it’s going to really turn out really cool. So, I’m happy with it.” Tomas said.
Tomas urges CI students to visit the art gallery and pick up a copy of The Island Fox on May 4 to support their peers. “We are going to have little snacks and drinks and people are going to read their poems and their short stories and talk about their art. It’s going to be an opportunity to pick up the journal and hangout!” Tomas said.
The event will take place Sat. May 4 at Studio Channel Arts Center at 3 p.m.-5 p.m.. The Island Fox thanks you for your support!