The Colorado Mesa University Literary Review has recently stated that they are “rebranding” in order to become a larger presence on campus.
The magazine started in 1972, making it CMU’s second oldest publication. It has kept the same general structure for all these years and has used the same logo, designed by Andrew Cruz, since 1988.
Now, Editor in Chief Chloe Bourdon feels that it’s time to make some improvements.
“The goal is that, with the rebranding, we’ll make ourselves more recognizable and relevant to the student body,” Bourdon said.
The Literary Review is also increasing the staff on their team.
“In previous years, we’ve had two positions: the editor in chief and the assistant editor,” Bourdon said. “And this year, we added two positions. We have the editor in chief, assistant editor, design editor and marketing director/events coordinator, so because we have four positions now, we’re more able to put more effort into rebranding.”
Of those positions, they are still hiring for assistant editor and design editor.
Bourdon explained that the magazine now has more of a solid theme. The theme this year was “Sonder,” Bourdon said. “[Which is] the realization that every passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. We liked that theme because it doesn’t constrain anything.”
“We had an early submission period where people who submitted their work could have it workshopped by the editors; myself and the assistant editor,” Bourdon said. “And then we would send it back to them, thus increasing their chance of being published.”
The rebranding also reveals a new logo. “We updated the logo because the old logo was strange, and we’d had it for thirty years,” Bourdon said.
She stated that it looked like half an avocado. The Lit Review team has also considered a color scheme, but hasn’t talked about it in detail yet.
Another change is that the publication now accepts essays when, in the past, they haven’t. There will also be more collaboration between writers and artists, allowing certain written pieces to be illustrated, as opposed to having completely unrelated works of art. Bourdon said that they plan to enter the issue in competitions and she is excited to hear their feedback.
According to Bourdon, the Lit Review team has spent about 300 hours working on the current issue together, in meetings alone. This doesn’t include each individual’s work on writing the pieces.
“Hopefully, five years from now, it’s going to be a real force at CMU, like the Crite is,” Bourdon said. “Everyone knows what the Crite is. Everyone knows what Horizon is. No one knows what the Lit Review is.”
The Lit Review will hold their launch party Thursday, March 29 at 6 p.m. It will take place at Kiln Coffee Bar on Main Street. Bourdon mentioned that they’re hoping to set up a sound system so that authors can present their pieces. At that time, the new issue of the publication will be released.
