Posted
on Oct 1, 2014 in Faculty
Professor
James Dempsey launches Worcester Journal, a showcase for young
writers
One
is a rumination on forgiveness, prompted by the writer’s encounter
with an incarnation of the boy who once bullied him.
Another
is a poignant remembrance of a 7-year-old girl burdened by the loss
of sight.
A
third is a treatise on the evolution of Godzilla—a beloved
celluloid monster inspired by one the most tragic events of the 20th
century: The 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
These
are just a few of the touching, introspective, humorous, and
informative pieces that appear in The
Worcester Journal,
a new literary magazine dedicated to showcasing the work of young
writers. Edited by prolific columnist-turned-author and WPI
humanities and arts instructor James Dempsey, its debut issue
premiered online in late September.
It’s
long been a goal of Dempsey’s, who, with a background of 20 years
in journalism and several books in his portfolio, knows full well
that the best way to hone a craft is, simply, to do it.
“I’ve
found that having students write for a real publication makes it much
easier to teach them how to write,” he said. “They’re focused
on producing something for a real audience, rather than focusing on
something to keep the instructor happy. They’re not just writing
for a grade, or an audience of one.”
The
quarterly online magazine was launched with help from a grant from
the Judy and Tony King Foundation. The magazine’s office is at
Bancroft School, where Dempsey is serving as writer-in-residence.
“I’m most grateful to the foundation and to Bancroft,” Dempsey
said. “The school has given me and the Journal
the
warmest of welcomes.”
Getting
the word out about it required casting a wide net to numerous area
high schools and colleges, he says, as well as intern programs,
homeschooling websites, and even the Worcester County House of
Correction.
With
a focus on creative nonfiction, it features memoirs, historical and
cultural essays and criticism, poems, book reviews, and photos from
local high school and college students from WPI and beyond. The first
issue features the work of students age 16 to 24, although Dempsey
stresses that that age range is “not strict by any means. I’m
happy to go a little bit above or below that, if I get a good piece
of work.”
Hannah
Yukon, a Clark University grad student and academic assistant at
Worcester State University, is one of the featured writers; her
stylized piece “I am like you, I am not like you” recounts the
life of her father, who “majored in geology and sacrifice,” and
her own upbringing in Singapore and eventual emigration to the U.S.
“Countless
boxes checked were ‘other,’ because there wasn’t a space for
Mixed American-Chinese Catholic-Jewish girls,” she writes. Then, in
America, “where my white roommate asked me why I speak English so
well, or what my ‘real name’ was, because Hannah wasn’t Asian
enough.”
Other
pieces discuss Charles Dickens’ American
Notes following
his four-month journey through the country; a primer on Bollywood for
“the confused and the curious”; an interview with romance writer
Susan Elizabeth Phillips; and the life-altering experience of reading
Moby-Dick.
A
DECENT READ
But
in addition to giving young people a platform to self-express and
sharpen their craft, Dempsey says he simply wants to give those who
check out the magazine a “decent read.”
“We
have a nice variety of stuff, so people can pick and choose,” he
says.
And
the author, whose most recent biography, The
Tortured Life of Scofield Thayer—about
Worcester’s native son who published a literary magazine in the
1920s and was analyzed by Sigmund Freud—says he gets as much out of
the experience as the students.
He
works with each one to germinate and craft ideas, some of which are
buried in other prose they submit to him.
“I
and the writer are working together to get a piece up to a good level
for publication,” he says. “The pleasure of the whole thing is
working with the writers. It’s a real luxury to be able to do
that.”
And
he says he’s been impressed by the caliber of work so far. “I
really love the stuff that the writers are producing, to the point
where I wish I’d written it myself. It’s a recharge for me in a
lot of ways. Finding new talent is a real pleasure, it really is.
There’s so much of it.”
Check
out The
Worcester Journal at
theworcesterjournal.com.
- BY TARYN PLUMB
Original
story link.
No comments:
Post a Comment