(publicus > publicare > publier > publicen > publishen > publish)

The Clackamas Literary Review publishes innovative texts from around the globe. Best-selling authors, award-winning writers, poet laureates—all are featured alongside writers seeing their work in print for the very first time. It’s exciting. Really exciting. But that’s not even the best part.

What makes the Clackamas Literary Review truly unique is that it is published—every year since 1997—by students at Clackamas Community College. Some are English majors. Some are creative writers. All are readers. And while most of them have a sense of what it means to publish a book, few have a clue what that process actually looks like behind the scenes. Until then they find out. In the most spectacular fashion.

Our students learn about publishing by becoming publishers—of an award-winning, national literary arts magazine. They read and discuss and argue about hundreds of short fiction and poetry submissions every year. They craft suggestions for revision and communicate editorial decisions to authors. They accept and reject manuscripts. They solicit (and sometimes create) cover art. They copyedit and layout and promote every volume. They get their hands dirty. Real dirty. And they have fun doing it. Lots of fun. And every spring they see their names on a book THEY published beneath a title THEY earned: “Assistant Editor.” That’s no small feat. It’s a BIG…deal.

This blog too is created by those students—the assistant editors & designers of our beloved Clackamas Literary Review—with the intent to make public what it takes—and what it means—to make a book. Reading through these postings, you will get a glimpse of the work they’ve accomplished and challenges they’ve overcome, the processes they’ve navigated and choices they’ve made, and the excitement and camaraderie that comes only from collaborating with others to attain a common goal: the creation of an artifact, the publication of a book. One they’ve made public just for you. The Clackamas Literary Review.

Enjoy.