The upcoming edition of the student publication “Dry Erase” feels like a pamphlet. Inside, the pages aren’t glossy because they’re photo copied.
These attributes reflect the informal, relaxed attitude “Dry Erase” editors have about the publication.
The third installment of “Dry Erase,” an independent, undergraduate literary journal that will be released this week, is unlike anything else published on campus, according to its editors.
The University’s Literary Society publishes another literature and arts journal, “Timberline,” annually with submissions from the entire student body, faculty and staff, and is funded through ASUO, according to the society’s Web site.
“Dry Erase,” on the other hand, is an independent student publication funded by the journal’s editors and is limited to undergraduate writing.
“We’re more willing to accept experimental writing – things that take a chance more than they are extremely polished and professional. There are other outlets on campus to get your writing published, but we like things that take a risk. I feel that the things we publish wouldn’t fit into any other places,” Ashley Keneller, the publication’s editor in chief, said.
Poetry editor Tony Andersen said the journal attracts pieces that are energetic and that the publication “keeps the local literary scene exciting, vibrant and new.”
“Dry Erase” doesn’t have any writing style guidelines and relies on freelance submissions from the campus writing community. Writers are attracted to “Dry Erase” for its loose submission guidelines and creative style, and writers are mostly reached through University creative writing classes.
Andersen, now an editor, was attracted by the publication’s writing style.
“The writing they were putting out was new and it was very original. – (Editors) didn’t want the journal to become an uptight, pretentious thing. It was new. It wasn’t your run-of-the-mill mindset behind your traditional literary journal,” Andersen said.
The journal also serves as an informal forum for local writers.
“The real goal is to give people a place they have to submit so their writing doesn’t have to be so private. You can create a community,” Keneller said.
The creation of “Dry Erase” was due to the lack of creative outlets on campus, especially for undergraduates, Keneller said.
“When we started this two years ago, there wasn’t really anything like it,” Keneller said. Other outlets were “not accessible” and were “too polished and perfect.”
“Dry Erase” was launched in 2004 when Keneller met former University students Jeff Frawley and Jeff McClain, who both graduated last year, in the Kidd Tutorial, a yearlong, intense creative writing course that requires an application process, according to the University’s Web site.
The trio was at Keneller’s house when the idea came to them, Keneller said.
“We sat down and were making all these notes to get it started. We were making them on a dry erase board,” Keneller said.
Along with Keneller and Andersen, editors Haji Quinn and Drew Shipley choose which pieces to publish.
“Looking for submissions is almost like politics. Some (editors) like one piece, but I might not like it. You negotiate and compromise,” Andersen said.
“That’s probably the most controversial thing we have going on,” Keneller said, adding that the process is diplomatic. “We all have similar taste.”
All editors except Keneller, who focused on the publishing and design aspect this year, published work in the upcoming edition, and all have work published in previous editions.
This year’s issue is filled with prose poetry including “All or Nothing” by English major Travis Hardy.
“It’s one of the pieces I’m excited to publish because it doesn’t have a niche in other places. I like to think we’re the outlet for it,” Keneller said.
Andersen submitted a piece about a Greyhound bus trip to the Midwest over winter break.
“You meet all those weird-ass, random people – I think it’s good for a person. Greyhound trips make you go so far out of your element” he said.
The editors of the publication will distribute 500 free copies around campus, including distribution through a mailbox at the corner of 13th Avenue and Kincaid Street.
“I hope anybody reads it. My big goal would be for the entire campus to pick up a piece of this new stuff we’re trying to promote,” Andersen said.
Past copies of “Dry Erase” will soon be available in the Special Collections section of Knight Library, Keneller said.
A release party open to the public will be held tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts, 110 W. Broadway Ave.

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