Hilary Vandenbark
Communicator

After many months of work, the Wire Harp literary magazine made its 2008 debut.

On May 28, staff members and contributors of the magazine shared their work with about 40 students and faculty during their 5th annual Coffee Shop Open House held in Building 17.

Some members of the Wire Harp staff addressed the students before contributors read their work

“The Wire Harp is a fantastic blend between literature and the visual arts,” said Literary Editor JoLynn Morse.

This year, the staff introduced a new award for poetry honoring a recently retired instructor, Richard Baldasty. The Richard Baldasty Poetry Award went to Eric James for his poem “Second Attempt at Kindness.”

“I don’t know that I necessarily deserve it,” James said.

Literary Advisor Laura Read said the recipient was chosen by the literary staff.

“We were looking for which one paid the most attention to the craft of poetry,” Read said.

Because of losing Baldasty on the Wire Harp staff, Literary Advisor Connie Wasem said they wanted to remember him and his long-term patronage of literary art.

“There is a keen command of poetry and the arts,” Wasem said of his poetic abilities.

Baldasty gave praise for the magazine before reading the poem he contributed to the magazine.

“The Wire Harp is a wonderful institution on campus,” Baldasty said.

Wasem came up with the idea of a Coffee Shop Open House five years ago because of the synonymous nature of coffee houses and poetry and because she wanted to spotlight the work that many put into it.

“I realized that a lot of people on campus didn’t know about the Wire Harp,” she said.

Read said she was very happy about the variety of fiction, poetry and visual art in this volume of the Wire Harp. She said hearing and seeing all the content made the variety very apparent to her. Read introduced each person before they came to read their fiction or poetry, many of them were her students.

Between the readings, the staff provided a slide show of the visual art in the Wire Harp.

Heidi Jantz is the art director for the 24th volume of the Wire Harp who has put in countless hours into the production of it. She created the theme and style of the book.

“If you think the book is lovely, you owe your kudos to Heidi Jantz,” Wasem said.

You can contact the writer at staffwriter@spokanefalls.edu