UWT’s Literary Arts Magazine Releases 19th Volume

Faculty, staff, and students came out by the bunches to Anthem Coffee and Tea on May 28 in support of Tahoma West and to celebrate the release of their annual literary and visual arts magazine.

TW’s Volume 19 was highly antici­pated with Anthem being packed to the brim and over 60 people in attendance at the book release party.

Tahoma West Editor-in-Chief Ni­cole McCarthy opened the event and gave a brief overview of the year TW has had. After budget cuts Tahoma West has worked hard to raise awareness and branch out into the community. From an open mic night collaboration with the Student Activities Board, poetry flash mobs to corpse poetry as McCar­thy said, “We’ve had a crazy year and a crazy amount of momentum.”

With 24 contributors and 38 differ­ent works TW’s Volume 19 is complete. Enlisting students, staff, faculty, and alumni from a variety of academic and cultural backgrounds Tahoma West gathered the works of some of the best and brightest members of UW Tacoma’s literary and visual arts community. The TW staff filled the magazine with a compilation of fiction, nonfiction, po­etry, and visual arts. With a cover piece done by the Ledger’s own Layout Man­ager Danielle Bürch, the final product was something Tahoma West and their contributors were proud of.

Jillian Lee, writing studies senior, was one of the contributors and read her poem, “It Rained in the Middle of October,” at the release party.

“It’s a dream come true,” Lee said. “I’ve always wanted to be a published writer since I was a little girl.”

Lee saw her family’s support as they sat front and center at the event.

Ten of the 24 contributors enter­tained the crowd with readings of their work. Pieces read ranged from poems such as alumni Ian Woolley’s “No Time to Explain, I am From the Future” to nonfiction works like alumni Russ Da­vis’ “My Open Letter to Jenny McCar­thy.” The night ended with readings by Kyle Turner, a man who, according to McCarthy “doesn’t need any introduc­tion.” Turner read his eyebrow-raising poems, “The Mystery of the Missing Lynx” and “The Fallacy of Your Exis­tence Lies in Your Concept of God.”

The UWT community came out in full force to support Tahoma West Mc­Carthy said. “The release party was a phenomenal success,” she said.

According to McCarthy, so much hard work went into the production of the magazine and this event.

“It was a labor of love and I’m a little heartbroken it’s over,” McCarthy said. “I’m so proud of the staff and everything we’ve accomplished this year I can’t wait to see what happens in the future.”