magazine for UNM. She and I had both worked on our high school literary magazine (The Accolade at Del Norte) and were again working as student employees of Student Publications together in 1977. Because UNM’s previous literary magazine, Thunderbird, had ceased publication a number of years earlier, we thought UNM students could benefit from a new publication for not only literary works, but also works of art. Young, wholly inexperienced, and incredibly idealistic, Gayle and I secured funding from the UNM Student Publications Board, advertised for and found a more experienced student (Rick Celum) to take on the role of Editor-in-Chief, and set out to solicit submissions for what would end up a 6" x 9", eighty-page, perfect-bound book, printed only in black and white because color images were too expensive. We decided on the name “Conceptions Southwest” because we wanted our magazine to be a model for the highest achievement in all creative arts in the same way the magazine Poetry Northwest had long been a model for stellar achievement in poetry. That first year, we were excited as well as a bit daunted to end up with more than two hundred submissions, among which were works by locally well-known poets, writers, and artists, such as Jon Gil Bentley, Patrick Clancy, Gene Frumkin, David Johnson, Joyce Kozloff, Harvena Richter, and Paul Willeto (one of whose sculptures was featured on that first cover). After that first extraordinarily humbling and successful year, Gayle went on to become Editor of CSW’s second edition
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in 1979, while I waited until 1981 to take on that role. That first edition of Conceptions Southwest in 1978 was a labor of love in so many different ways. For Gayle and me, it was an homage to our high school training and teachers who had inspired in us a love of literature and art. It was also a yearning to produce from our own friendship something exceptional that would be a gift to others. But, most importantly, the 1979 Conceptions Southwest was an effort by all of its staff members to demonstrate the love for and power of art and literature. What we aspired to produce in those early days of CSW is no less important in its 35th year than it was way back then. In those early years, we published many new writers and artists, too many of whom to list who gained the necessary confidence and respect to go on to become leaders in their own creative fields. Just as it was all those years ago, today’s CSW is motivated by the sincere desire of its staff to prove that art and literature matter in this world, that creative works can change lives and make the world a better place. As idealistic and sentimental as such statements may sound, they are resoundingly true and unabashedly possible. I, for one, would not be who I am today without the experiences of those early years working on CSW and, I would hazard to guess, neither would your own world and life be as rich and full of potential for growth and change, dear reader, without such magazines of literature and art as the precious CSW you now hold in your hands.
35th
anniversary
XI