By: Adriana Avila, Managing Editor | Photo Illustration By: Jonathan Gamboa, Production Manager
The 2013 edition of “Leonardo Literary Magazine” is scheduled to be released next month, said “Leonardo” adviser and Full-time Creative Writing instructor Patrick Houlihan.
The release party for this year’s edition will be held at the Main campus Student Resource Center on April 5 where students will have the opportunity to share their works during the festivities, he said.
“It’s a celebration of what’s in it. Anyone who is published in it can stand up and read their stuff and pick up copies, share them with friends,” he said.
“Leonardo” is funded by through student activity fees and prints only 250 copies of each edition, which are free, he said.
With the increase of student interest, “Leonardo” has grown from tabloid size to an actual magazine length, he said.
“It’s grown and stabilized over the years to where it’s now a 50 or 60 page magazine full color and student activities has been great at funding the increase costs. Paper and ink took a huge jump about five or seven years ago,” he said.
Being published is a big step for people and it helps a great deal to write it on resumes, he said.
“It’s a wonderful resume line to say ‘I’m a published author or artist selected,’” Houlihan said.
English major and “Leonardo” editor Shaya Rogers said it is a privilege to review student works because this year’s submissions were impressive.
“Giving students the opportunity to share their creative work is a positive aspect of the CNM community and I am so happy to support that,” Rogers said.
Rogers, who also works as the features reporter for the CNM Chronicle, has three nature photos and two poems featured in the magazine: one about her challenges with monogamy and the other an ode to her sister who committed suicide when she was a teenager, she said.
Business and Communications major and layout designer Jonathan Gamboa, who also works at the production manager for the CNM Chronicle, said he enjoys designing the magazine because it gives him the opportunity be creative.
“I think it’s fun. Since I am the only one designing, it allows me to have more freedom in producing the magazine,” Gamboa said.
This is Gamboa’s second design year and his role for “Leonardo” extends further professionally from the mouse and screen, he said.
“I really did get professional experience doing it the first year because I was having to stay in touch with the printers and coordinating the release party with the editors, along with setting my own deadlines to finish the magazine,” he said.
Houlihan said “Leonardo” used to be a semester project for the Business and Graphics department, but the magazine became the work of volunteer students after the program was cut a couple of years ago.
Submissions for “Leonardo” for 2014 are now being accepted and deadline for works will probably be in early January 2014, he said.
Houlihan hopes to continue the works of “Leonardo” because of the community’s great reviews and the benefits students receive when published, he said.
“It’s a nice representation of us to the community and I’d hate for it to disappear,” Houlihan said.
