Western’s publishing program sees steady growth

Fourth cohort to release anthology this month

Abby Harrison Times Staff Writer

For author Jessica Guernsey, the “slush pile” is the best part; hundreds of pieces of writing sent in from every corner of the world, from authors interested in everything from dragons and fairies to stories of their childhood. Unlike some of her industry peers, she loves the rhythmic pattern of reading and sorting. It has become a well-loved practice as she knows it to be a critical part of any publishing process.

Guernsey and fellow students in the publishing concentration of the Creative Writing Graduate Program at Western Colorado University had a nearly 600-story slush pile this year, submitted for consideration in the cohort's annual anthology. The one-year publishing concentration, one of Western’s newest programs, is seeing steady growth each year and is now gearing up for its fourthever book release.

The program teaches both traditional and indie publishing, a scope meant to capture every angle of the rapidlychanging industry, from New York suit-and-tie publishers to self-designed books sold on Amazon. Students learn what to look for in book contracts, how to handle copyright and intellectual property and how to manage agents and editors.

“It used to be that you were a writer, and you wrote a book, and then you looked for an agent, and then you tried to sell it to your publisher. Then three years later, it would come out,” said program director and author Kevin Anderson. “That whole way of publishing has kind of fallen by the wayside. There are so many more alternatives that a writer has today.”

Anderson, a freelance writer who has co-authored books in the Dune series and Star Wars franchise, resurrected the university’s publishing program in 2019. Anderson went back for his MFA in order to start teaching at Western, but said it was his real-world experience in the industry, not his academic foray, that became the backbone of the curriculum.

Longtime science fiction

writer and student Scott Barnes said that curriculum kept him on his toes. Near-weekly guest speakers in fields from marketing to software companies to digital publishers kept discussions current, he said.

“I knew next to nothing about traditional publishing, except the process for being accepted,”

Barnes said. “But now I know all of the back ends and what happens to books that are being analyzed and considered and what happens to them after they get accepted.”

Guernsey’s cohort graduated last spring. In the past four years, the program has slowly grown to accept more students — from nine the first year to 15 in the coming 2023-24 cohort. Anderson taught the program alone the first year, but has since added two professors, Allyson Longneira and Gwyneth Gibby. Each year since the program’s inception, students filled the roster. Twice, Anderson accepted two cohorts to accommodate burgeoning interest.

Creatives from all walks of life convene for the program: longtime writers who got their start in traditional publishing and 20-somethings fresh out of college; people who run their own publishing houses and those who dream of one day opening one. The thread pulling them together is a desire to learn, Anderson said.

Guernsey, who writes short stories of all genres, hopes to one day start her own publishing company. She chose the program to study with Anderson and to get a wellrounded education on how the publishing industry was changing.

“It changed my perspective on a lot of things I had already thought about the publishing community and the publishing world,” she said. “It gave me a broader view, but also a sharper view.

Each year, the cohort compiles an anthology of writing from authors around the world. The anthology is published by WordFire Press and funded by indie publishing company Draft2Digital, which donates $5,000 each year to pay submitting authors a professional rate; this year it was six cents a word.

This year, the theme was “merciless mermaids.” Students read and rated each submission and whittled the slush pile down to 30 pieces of writing. The selected pieces of writing, now compiled into “Merciless Mermaids: Tails from the Deep,” will be celebrated at the program’s fourth annual book release on August 2.

(Abby Harrison can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or abby@ gunnisontimes.com.)