Retired English Lecturer Founds Lightwood Online Literary Journal
Retired English Department Lecturer Laurence Carr has established an online literary and arts journal titled Lightwood: life and the arts in the 21st century.
Taking inspiration from the print magazine Utne Reader, an alternative digest that publishes a compilation of short pieces, Carr has created a digital home for an eclectic, international collection of literature and arts.
Lightwood currently publishes a variety of creative works including creative nonfiction, fiction, memoir and poetry alongside reviews of food, theatre, books, films and music. Submissions are published quarterly – and the just released Fall edition is issue number three for the newly founded journal.
Carr, who taught at New Paltz for 24 years before retiring in 2019, took his inspiration for the journal’s name from one of his favorite Dickens characters. Explaining that “Mortimer Lightwood, in Dicken’s Our Mutual Friend, is a loyal friend and one who refuses to engage in shallow and uninteresting conversation. But more, Lightwood is a pun on light wood. It’s digital (mostly): no pencil and paper (hard wood).”
Early in the development process, Carr sought out instruction from a local librarian in learning the technology involved with building and maintaining a Word Press site. Carr now feels self-sufficient and manages much of the website logistics himself, but continues to collaborate with SUNY New Paltz alumni and other professionals.
Creative contributions to the journal’s first few issues include current and retired SUNY New Paltz faculty Sue Books (School of Education) and Dennis Doherty, Thomas Festa, Penny Freel, Mary Holland, Abigail Nadell Robin, Jan Zlotnik Schmidt, Robert H. Waugh and Sarah Wyman, all from the English Department. New Paltz alumni contributors include founding editors Elizabeth Dee, Amber Mason and Robynne Yokota, editorial consultant Christopher Mendez, Emily LaSita (winner of the College’s 2019 Tomaselli Award of poetry), Christine Donat, Lydia Nightengale and Sara Vinciguerra.
Currently, contributors are working to build the journal’s social media presence. Connecticut artist Power Boothe serves as the site’s Arts Consultant and Curator and is developing a companion Instagram (link) site to highlight the visual artwork for Lightwood. The journal also has a Facebook page.
In addition to employing the standard social media channels, Carr promotes Lightwood through SUNY faculty and alumni networks as well as various writer networks and word of mouth. Carr hopes to create an internship opportunity for an English or communication undergraduate student to assist with the journal’s management and promotion.
Lightwood currently accepts submissions of short works in a variety of categories in the 500-1200 word range. With thousands of viewers from over 35 countries, Carr emphasizes that Lightwood is an international publication, which will also maintain a Hudson Valley focus that reflects its publisher and founding editor’s roots. He also noted that the journal will publish the winners of the College’s Tomaselli Awards for student writing.
Carr maintains a strong affiliation with New Paltz and continues to give guest lectures in classes taught by his former English Department colleagues. He also serves as the anthology editor at Codhill Press, founded by David Appelbaum, emeritus professor of philosophy. He has also begun to publish print versions of other writers’ work under the moniker of Lightwood Press – one recent example of which is a travelogue titled On and Off the Beaten Path by Carol Bell Ford.
Explaining the varied interests reflected throughout Lightwood, Carr remarked, “I’ve been very eclectic all my life. . . . my interest is one thing, which is creativity in the arts and humanities. But then it goes off into different offshoots of theatre, film, literature, publishing, editing, poetry, etcetera.”