Windmill - Spring 2017

Although this is our second issue, in many ways this is an edition of firsts. When we initially dreamt of Windmill, our publisher, Melissa Connolly, and I imagined an entirely student-run publication, and this issue is the first to be produced along with the undergraduate Publishing Studies practicum. The class used our first issue (Winter 2017, Volume 1) as a textbook, keeping what worked and refining what didn’t. The junior and senior students had a hand in building the book from the ground up, helping our MFA students choose the work, and then editing, copyediting, and even, in some cases, writing the pieces. Undergraduate Gary Duff interviewed critic Margo Jefferson, and MFA students Dayna Troisi and Lily Vu profiled powerhouse poets Liv Mammone, our selection for Windmill’s signature mini-chapbook, and professor Phillis Levin, for our Faculty Spotlight.

This is also the first time the issue was designed on campus; with the convivial guidance of undergraduate phenom Keaton Ramjit, who has seen us through two issue cycles as Managing Editor now, the class talked margins and fit, kerning and four-color process. The students looked at budgets, retooled our digital presence, built a social media platform, and considered web content accessibility standards like section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Much consideration was given to the visual construction of the issue, as Emily Nguyen writes about in her Art Editor’s letter. Featured artist Timna Tarr’s quiltwork rests on color and small compositions; this issue of Windmill is like one of Tarr’s quilts in that way, with each block constructed as its own independent element, coming together as a whole to tell a multi-faceted story.

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