ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS (August 11, 2023) The Young Emerging Writers (YEW) Summer Internship Program will host a two-part launch party for the latest issue of the Program’s literary magazine The Atlas on Thursday, August 17, in downtown Rock Island.
The event will start at 5PM (doors at 4:30PM), with a Family and Friends Reception at the Rock Island Public Library Community Room, where YEW interns will give a brief reading of their work. Then, at 8PM (doors at 7PM), the party will move down the street to Rozz-Tox, where the YEW interns, and maybe some special guests, will read different selections from the magazine, giving audiences an opportunity to hear more work from the magazine brought to life in a different venue.
Both parts of the event are free and open to the public ($5 suggested donation to support MWC youth writing programs); copies of The Atlas 18 will be available for purchase at both events.
Both events will be livestreamed to MWC's YouTube page: youtube.com/midwestwritingcenter
About Young Emerging Writers:
The YEW Summer Internship Program is composed of students ages fifteen to nineteen who applied and were interviewed for the privilege of participating in this selective paid internship program. This summer, 24 interns from around Quad City area and beyond participated in YEW, the most interns ever hired. YEW provides writing instruction in a variety of writing styles and processes, and develops professional skills in areas such as editing, collaborative project management, and magazine design. In fifty hours of meetings over seven weeks, the interns went from meet-and-greet to producing a high-quality literary magazine. This summer, the YEW program celebrates its eighteenth year with the release of The Atlas 18.
Copies of new and back issues will be available for purchase at both locations. The Atlas 18 will be available for $10 at the launch, and all back issues of The Atlas only $5. You can pre-order a copy of The Atlas 18 today: mwcqc.org/books/the-atlas-18/
Please contact Ryan Collins for more information about the YEW Summer Internship Program, The Atlas, or this event: mwc@mwcqc.org, (309) 732-7330.
Funding and material support for the Young Emerging Writers Summer Internship Program and The Atlas generously provided by the Illinois Arts Council Agency, the Hubbell-Waterman Foundation, the Scott County Regional Authority, Modern Woodmen of America, Illinois Humanities, the CD Wiman Memorial Trust, the Melvin McKay Charitable Trust, the Rock Island Public Library, and Rozz-Tox.
