Chances are your college or high school funded and tacitly supported a literary journal chock full of angry poetry and a few depressing photos of trees and puddles, and more resembling a pamphlet than a magazine.

It’s no wonder — such publications (okay, journals for you purists) are the blood and sweat of only a handful of people, and transient people at that. Each year, new students bubble out of their freshman/sophomore haze and into projects of substance, leaving things like literary journals with generally only two years (at most) of dedicated service and experience.

“It’s a sword that cuts both ways,” says Keith Foster, the USM junior who is the publisher/director of Words + Images this year. In fact, Words + Images was nearly headed for the shredder last year. “At the time I was part of the [student activities] executive board who almost had to dissolve it. . . . We almost killed it because we couldn’t just hold funding for an organization that exists in name only,” Foster says.

Last year’s publishing director Hudson Wyatt and a handful of other students including Foster stepped up to the plate, though, to accept responsibility for the $25,000 (and an additional contribution from the discretionary budget of USM President Richard Pattenaude, says Foster, in support of the journal) in funding that comes from the university student activities pot to keep it afloat.

With the new blood came innovation and change, two perennial hallmarks of Words + Images . More a small book of almost square shape than a typical journal, Words + Images solicits both written and artistic submissions from all over the US. Yes, the journal is sprinkled with submissions from USM community members, but the bulk of its content, which includes a variety of mixed-media display, poetry, and prose, comes from elsewhere. And this year, says Foster, the journal seems to have a greater focus on art than literature — photography, watercolors, teabag blots, and digital creations abound. He credits that to art director Rebecca Stockbridge.

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But what really sets Words + Images 2006 apart from its predecessors is in the way that artists and writers are identified — they’re not. Not on the pages where their work is highlighted, anyway.

“I sort of had an epiphany when I was in a gender identity and modern art class last semester. We were discussing representations of female artists in New York and the galleries that highlighted women’s work. It got me thinking that that kind of presentation changes viewership entirely, even if the art is of the same quality or standard. The fact that it could change your appreciation for the work itself frustrated me, and I began to think about how to avoid that,” says Foster. “How can I go to a gallery now without thinking about the artist’s gender or ethnicity? I wanted Words + Images to really be about viewing art in a pure form. All the names are off the artists’ art, and there’s no signature on the publishing director’s letter, either. So, the concept is very thorough.”

“The idea of it being a student magazine but not necessarily highlighting student work, can anger people at university,” says Foster. “I thought one way to alleviate that was to push having a USM contest for literature and art, so the work of USM students wouldn’t get lost.” The name of the new award hasn’t been announced, but we know that Sarah Trent will take the literature award while Andrew Coffin gets an art award.

Students aren’t the only USM community members involved. Laima Sruoginis, director of the Stonecoast Summer Writers’ Conference, is in the journal (selected by means of a blank reading, as all lit works are read without names).

“I only point out that distinction because I love the idea of students producing a journal that features work of students and professionals alike. I love that student poetry editors got together to discuss Laima’s work [without knowing it was her],” says Foster, who clearly has great regard for the instructor. “It’s almost like a student/professor reversal. This also goes back to the idea of not supplying names on the page — readers won’t be able to make distinctions between students and professors ... and I think that’s important.”

Portlander Tim Clorius, a graffiti artist and featured interviewer and Elizabeth Sinclair, a painter from Jefferson, Maine, are among other featured artists.

Despite its meticulous presentation and unusual provenance, Words + Images remains largely unknown: only 500 copies are produced, mostly because that’s all that the university’s money can buy, but also because the high cost of production leaves little budget for marketing.

“If we thought we could sell them, we could print more,” says Foster noting that the limited-edition keepsakes are now available for $20. “It means marketing, and, ultimately, I don’t think the marketing has grown or maintained itself from one year to another. It’s a respectable and attractive journal, but the marketing is always limited to the efforts of the staff, and getting students involved in that part of it is tough.”

So, this year, as in years past, Foster and company are throwing a party to celebrate the release of the 2006 issue of Words + Images . The event will feature readings from some of the contributors as well as a showing of some of the art pieces found in the magazine. A DJ will be on hand, a cash bar, and something else: back issues.

“Yes, believe it or not, we have boxes of them and we’ll be letting them go for about $10 each,” says Foster.

In all, the event will be a celebration of a year of hard work to maintain one of the many things that makes USM unique. “It’s a culmination of all the individuals’ personal aesthetics,” says Foster. “It’s all very subjective, but it’s beautiful.”

Words + Images release party | April 19, 6 pm | SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St, Portland | 207.828.5600

On the Web
Space Gallery: www.space538.org

Email the author
Tony Giampetruzzi: tony@giampetruzzi.com