Kenneth H. Robidoux, a 2005 alumnus of West Virginia University master of fine arts (MFA) program in creative writing, developed an online literary and arts magazine called “Connotation Press: An Online Artifact,” that will be launched on Sept. 1. WVU English professor and poet James Harms will be the first featured writer.
“Connotation Press is designed to be a hub for the conversations generated by the many expressions art is taking in the modern world,” Robidoux said. “It is our hope that by providing an inclusive place for many genres to flourish, we will introduce artists of varying genres to each other in a nurturing, crossroads-like environment.”
The magazine will publish a variety of arts, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, plays, feature-length scripts, book reviews, essays on craft, a food and wine column, videos of music and dance performances, photography, digital reproductions of visual arts, crossover genres, etc.
“Connotation Press” will also provide community pages for artists, giving them a space to communicate with each other, post their art and writing, and provide information or links to their work. Each month one artist will be featured with a videotaped interview.
Harms, who was instrumental in creating WVU’s MFA program, will be interviewed by “Connotation Press” following a reading on Friday, August 28 at 7:30 p.m. at The Bookshelf in Morgantown. The event will provide an opportunity to meet Harms, and much of the staff of “Connotation Press”— ten of whom are WVU alumni, including Amanda McGuire Rzicznek, Katie Fallon, John Hoppenthaler, Renee Nicholson, Wayne Thomas, Beth Staley, Natalie Seabolt Dobson, Kelly Edgeington Fiore, and Kaitlin Hillenbrand in addition to Robidoux. Also, Tom Sydow is a professor at Potomac State College of WVU. The event is free and open to the public.
Robidoux developed the idea for the online art magazine while working in California where he taught advanced writing communication for engineers at the University of Southern California for four years before recently retiring to Morgantown. He is the former editor-in-chief of the “Mosiac Art and Literary Journal” and currently teaches at Waynesburg University and Pierpont Community and Technical College.
In addition to the online magazine, “Connotation Press Quarterly” will release a printed collection of submissions chosen from those published on the Web site. To view the Web site on Sept. 1, go to http://connotationpress.com.
For more information, contact James Harms at 304-293-9720 or James.Harms@mail.wvu.edu.
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lp/8/25/209
CONTACT: Rebecca Herod
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
304-293-7405, ext. 5251