Journal 2020 Spring Issue
Journal 2020 is promoting the launch of their latest Spring Issue at the Boulder Bookstore on Friday, April 12 at 7pm. This creative nonfiction journal publishes artwork and writing by students at the University of Colorado Boulder in print and online issues.
Volume One, Issue One hit the printers in the spring of 2013. At the time, this was the very first printed, exclusively nonfiction journal to be designed and to have content submitted and edited solely by students in the country. There was no designated course number, no syllabus, and no one received credit towards their college degree. WRTG 2020, taught by Dr. Jay Ellis in the fall of 2012, was a creative nonfiction course of sixteen students. Fifteen of those students along with Dr. Ellis would be those who published what is now Journal 2020 the following fall. The process was thankless but the outcome was outstanding.
Although all of the original staff have since graduated, students are now available to work on staff for the journal itself. The journal is an opportunity to learn communication, writing, business and web design skills through productive Socratic methods while producing physical evidence of your hard work. As Ellis wrote in the first issue of Journal 2020, “The writing of these students is not the rewriting of this teacher. Instead, improvements in their inclusion of detail, structural management, incorporation of evidence, avoidance of sentimentality—and especially their daring in subject matter and wide-ranging curiosity in subjects came from their honest hard work.”
If you enjoy reading creative nonfiction or looking at beautiful artwork, the journal’s website has every previous print and online issue including podcasts, artwork and all our future events. If you are an artist or writer, you should certainly consider submitting your creative nonfiction to our journal for the rare opportunity to have your work published! In addition to getting published, students can earn credit hours by working on staff as well as having their name published in the journal. If you want to graduate knowing you made a lasting impact on the University of Colorado, joining the Journal 2020 staff is a wonderfully rewarding option.
The Boulder Bookstore will host the launch of the 2019 Spring Issue on Friday, April 12 at 7pm. Not only are the Journal 2020 events a great way to meet current staffers and learn more about the work that goes into creating the journal, it is also a chance to listen to students read their own creative nonfiction work and to show support for the future of writing and rhetoric in the lives of students.
Contact CU Independent guest writer Ben Levin at benjamin.levin@colorado.edu.
