Lantern Launch, Live from Home
The celebration of this year’s long-awaited literary magazine, The Lantern, looked a bit different this year. The launch premiered on YouTube and was streamed to a live, but virtual, audience of peers.
The event was spearheaded by Jon Volkmer, a professor of English, and The Lantern editor Nicole Kosar ’20, who still wanted to create an event despite the unusual circumstances.
The readers featured in the digital launch were poetry prize winner Colleen Murphy ’23, who read aloud her piece Cochlea, Greek for Snail; prose prize winner Jeremy Moyer ’23, who read a selection from That Light in the Sky; Creager prize winner Adam Mlodzinski ’21, who read Overview Effect. Dolman prize senior portfolio winner Jenifer Joseph ’20 also read her sonnet, Christmas Glove during the event.
“The Lantern launch is always one of the high points of the year, when we come together to celebrate our creative vigor and award prizes. The Lantern judges are all former editors and contributors themselves, which ties each year to the ongoing history of this great Ursinus institution,” said Volkmer.
It was important for those participating that the event still had some sort of interactivity and live aspect to it.
“Half the fun of The Lantern launch is the audience,” explained Kara McShane, an assistant professor of English, “There’s always excitement at the event, and this medium will let the Lantern’s contributors engage with each other (at least remotely) while we all enjoy readings from this year’s prize winners.”
McShane provided technical support for the event, putting together the video and getting it streaming on YouTube for the audience to see and share. As the video premiered, a live chat feature on the side of the screen allowed friends, faculty and family to cheer the readers on as they shared their work.
Interested readers can find the latest issue of The Lantern through the Digital Commons. —By Mary Lobo ’15