Taking Those First Few Steps
“They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter.” — William Carlos Williams
by John Herndon
When we put the 2008 issue of Ovation to bed (i.e., delivered the final version to the printer), at first I felt nothing but exhaustion and relief. Editing a magazine, in the final stages, becomes a very sticky proposition. There are ten thousand details, and every time you solve a problem, two more seem to jump up.
Now that a couple of weeks have gone by, I am able to see things with a bit more perspective. I have an advance copy of the magazine, and have found a moment to compare the 2008 edition with the first issue, which came out last year, and reflect on the journey that brought us here.
I’m feeling pretty much like a proud papa.
About a year and a half ago, Lyman Grant (Dean of the Arts and Humanities Division here at ACC), asked me, in my role on his Divisional Administrative Team, to undertake the project that became this publication. In his role as Dean, he had come to know about very many interesting achievements of the professors in our division, including Art, Drama, Dance, Creative Writing, Foreign Languages, ESOL, Philosophy, Religion and the Humanities. He was literally in awe about the number of ways that faculty are wired into the college, the community and beyond.
At first, Lyman was thinking about a newsletter which would simply tot up the exhibits, productions, publications, awards, etc., of the faculty. But when he broached the idea to me, and we began to brainstorm about the many possibilities and resources of the division, I suggested making the publication something more like a magazine. I mean, we have many visual artists, literary writers, and serious academic types on staff. Like me, Lyman has a background in magazines, so he wasn’t very hard to convince. Thus Ovation was born.
I’ve been around magazines for a long time, and I don’t mind bragging that Ovation is a pretty darn good publication of its ilk. Due in large part to the excellent work of our art director Laura Hofmann, the first issue was very good–looking, a promising birth. But this second issue is way further along, taking its first confident steps in the grown–up world.
This issue, I think, has gone far beyond the first–mainly because of contributions of faculty. The 2008 Ovation includes a wonderful piece by creative writing professor Sidney Brammer about a project very close to her heart; she and her sister, Drama Department Chair Shelby, are filming an adaptation of their father Billy Lee Brammer’s famous Austin novel The Gay Place, and are including many students and other ACC people in the production. Also, French Professor Raquel Gavia rehearsed her on–screen acting adventures in many movies going back to one of the Cohen brothers’ first features Blood Simple.
ESOL professor Devorah Feldman contributed an interesting update on her efforts to create a hybrid course, and the successes they have achieved. I really appreciate the seriousness and rigor of her work. And Patrick Collins, professor of Creative Writing, gave us a poetic and political reflection on an early experience trying to teach a mentally ill youth how to write.
And as an amateur classicist, I am very grateful to publish a wonderful rendering in English of a fragment from Sappho, the greatest lyricist of the ancient world, by Latin Professor James Burleson.
Many thanks as well to the faculty and student artists whose images make Ovation so colorful and attractive to the eye.
Ultimately, it is the contribution of these writers and artists that make Ovation what it is. I am both pleased and privileged to build a magazine around their work, and I look forward to presenting more writing and art by our faculty in future issues.
