The writing department hosted the Toad Suck Launchapalooza Extravaganza on Michelangelo’s rooftop Friday night to celebrate the release of the first issue of the Toad Suck Review.
Writing professor Terry Wright said it is important to have readings and launch parties like this one because reading original work in front of an audience is the same as an actor acting or a musician playing music. He said creative literature has the same performance aspect and oral tradition and is part of the fine arts.
“We want to remind people that the literary magazine is a vital part of the art community,” he said.
The launch party included readings by UCA students and faculty, readings from those who contributed their work to the Toad Suck Review and live music from the band Don’t Stop Please. The band and the readers performed in front of a room full of listeners and fellow artists.
“It’s good to see people interested in what we have to say,” UCA alumus Carter Fliss said.
Part one, which included the student reading, began at 8 p.m. and featured writing professor Stephanie Vanderslice, Arkansas Times journalist Bernard Reed and writer Julee Jaeger. UCA writing senior Ariel Moore, senior Michael Garland and Fliss also read their original poetry.
The writing students participated in an interview with writer David Schneiderman that was published in the Toad Suck Review. Vanderslice read an excerpt from a novel she has been working on that is based on a young German immigrant in New York City in the mid-1920s and Jaeger read part of “Beyond Flipper” by David Gessner, which was published in the journal.
“Reading poetry before an audience helps to show what’s going on in the literary world,” Fliss said.
Part two began around 9:30 p.m. and featured artists who contributed to the journal. Poet Timothy Snediker, poet Marck Beggs and novelist Kevin Brockmeier all read their original pieces to the audience.
Brockmeier is a writer from Little Rock whose work has been published in 15 languages. He was recently named one of Granta magazine’s Best Young American Novelists, according to the Toad Suck Review bio. Beggs is a writing and literature teacher at Henderson State University and has published three poetry collections titled “Catastrophic Chords,” “Libido Café” and “Godworm,” as well as a CD with songs from his band dog gods. Snediker is from Fayetteville and is a student at John Brown University in Siloam Springs.
Don’t Stop Please, an indie band, performed around 10 p.m. to the end of the launch party. Members of the band are William Krzeszinski, Joel Ludford, Nick Caffrey, Marly Feliciano and Robert Gaiser.
The Toad Suck Review was sold at the launch party, along with the Exquisite Corpse and other Toad Suck merchandise. The Toad Suck Review also held a national launch party in Washington, D.C. in February at the Associated Writing Programs conference. The launch party was the last event of the week-long Arkatext Literary Festival focusing on writing and reading in Arkansas.
Along with T-shirts and merchandise, Toad Suck Review made $300 at the launch party, editor Mark Spitzer said, and its distributors have 300 copies they are currently selling. It has sold about 100 copies through Internet sells and a book fair in Washington, D.C. The journal has been out one month and is going into its second printing.