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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

contemporary American poetry, likewise folio, poetry

College

Humanities

Department

English

Abstract

In a socially mediated age marked by competing identity politics, fractured and proliferating interests, and streamlined global connectivity, networking and community-building have become invaluable components of any venture /career goal. This is as true for lawyers or politicians as it is for poets and artists. The old adage, “it’s who you know,” is continuously validated and proven in job markets, in graduate schools, and in other sectors of the career-oriented world. To this end, Conner Bassett and I have used the funding provided us by an ORCA grant not only to expand the reach of our small online poetry journal, likewise folio, and publish—as an imprint of the journal—a chapbook of poems by Laura Kasischke (faculty member at the University of Michigan). We have also managed to forge a budding poetry community around this grassroots publishing group. Beyond overseeing each aspect of the publication process (solicitation editing, design, and marketing) and gaining a valuable set of corresponding skills, we have also to sought to build likewise folio and likewise books into a hub around which similarly minded individuals can gather and engage in creative sharing and self-expression. This, we believe, is the purpose of poetry in a (specifically) postmodern age, where poetry no longer functions as an idealized or “transcendent” medium. Art catalyzes the formation of valuable communities which perpetuate dialogues, engage municipalities, and act as fostering, developmental spaces grounded in human expression. The ORCA grant has allowed us to fulfill this three-fold project: publish important literature, network within our field, and offer a digital dialogue, community, and space.

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