Professors Bone and Griffith Receive Grant
to Start New Poetry Journal
Professors Paul Bone and Rob Griffith have been awarded
a Ball Venture Fund grant of nearly $30,000 in seed
money to begin Measure,
a new literary journal which will publish metrical poetry,
essays on poetry, and interviews with prominent poets.
Measure
will provide an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach
to teaching, editing, publishing and marketing, providing
students with valuable skills which will help further
them in their careers after college. Students from other
disciplines will be given the opportunity to intern
with the journal, learning the business side of this
kind of artistic pursuit.
The goals of the journal include:
· To offer students an interdisciplinary,
artistic endeavor in which they engage in other disciplines,
while giving them a real sense of joining an academic
conversation and putting their skills to work in a
tangible way.
· To offer students skills and responsibilities
that publishing a journal would entail.
· Give talented writers from all over the
world a place for their work to be published and give
readers a substantial sampling of the best poetry
being written or translated in the world today.
· Enhance UE’s reputation as a premier
school for creative writing and build on the University’s
existing involvement in the writing and publishing
community, allowing students even more opportunities.
· Further demonstrate and put to practice
UE’s emphasis of merging professional programs
with the liberal arts.
“The creation of Measure
provides the perfect opportunity to engage students
from the College of Arts and Sciences and the School
of Business Administration through a collaborative internship
experience,” said Margaret McMullan, professor
and chair of the Department of English. There is also
a realized need for this type of journal. The only other
metrical poetry journal in the nation, The Formalist,
a journal created in 1990 by Dr. William Baer, UE professor
of English, and his wife Mona, recently ceased publication.
Measure,
which would be open to both new and established writers,
will attract a wide range of experienced individuals
while also providing a learning experience for UE students,
stretching beyond the classroom.
English professors Paul Bone and Rob Griffith will
serve as editors for the publication, and William Baer
will be a contributing editor as well as a liaison to
various poetry groups and organizations. The journal
will be published annually.
The funding is provided by the Ball Brothers Foundation
of Muncie, for the Venture Fund -- a program administered
by the Independent Colleges of Indiana for the benefit
of Indiana’s independent colleges and universities.
UE was among only two Indiana institutions receiving
funding, out of 17 applications received.