Sheepshead Review celebrates 20 years at May 3 launch event
Green Bay, WI – On Wednesday, May 3, from 1-2 pm CST, both via Zoom and in-person, Sheepshead Review, UW-Green Bay’s international journal of arts and literature, will be launching its Spring 2023 issue and celebrating 20 years of continuous publication. In its design and illustration, the 20th Anniversary issue pays homage to icons and journal design from 2003 to the present.
At the launch event, writers and artists worldwide will join UW-Green Bay winners of annual SHR’s Rising Phoenix contest to share the words and art featured in the issue.
Sheepshead Review began as ‘Sheepshead Revue’ in the 1960s. The journal operated as a student organization, advised by various faculty. But in 2002, the journal had no budget or staff. That fall, Professor Rebecca Meacham began her tenure as a professor in the English department and began the revival of the nationally-recognized journal. “I walked into my first class ready to recruit,” says Meacham. “Five students signed on, and by spring 2003, the Sheepshead Review was operating as both a new three-credit course and a student organization.” Sheepshead Review relaunched with a staff of 22 students.
The first “new” issue’s cover featured a hammer breaking a lightbulb: inspiration, exploding.
Since then, students have smashed lightbulbs again and again. Staffers became genre editors, then Editors-in-Chief. They started the Rising Phoenix contest, now in its 19th year. They created web pages, social media, themed issues, launch parties and made space to publish high school students alongside international artists and UW-Green Bay students.
The design of the journal was inspired by many a creative layout editor. Editors dreamed in color, then made it so. They introduced us to soft-touch covers, spot varnish, the joy/headache of fold-out pages. Even 20 years later, it’s still an event when a layout editor unveils their concept.
Along the way, Sheepshead Review staffers have inspired the development of an undergraduate-run book press (The Teaching Press at UW-Green Bay) and a new major (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing and Applied Arts.) The students involved with the Sheepshead Review have made an immeasurable impact on the UW-Green Bay campus and beyond.
Now, 20 years post-reboot, more than 1300 submissions were received this year, including 60 from high schoolers and 150+ from UW-Green Bay students.
Guests for the launch event should RSVP here. For more information, contact Rebecca Meacham, Advisor to Sheepshead Review,at meachamr@uwgb.edu.
About UW-Green Bay
Established in 1965, UW-Green Bay is a public institution serving more than 9,600 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students and 95,000 continuing education learners each year. We educate students from pre- college through retirement and offer 200+ degrees, programs and certificates. UW-Green Bay graduates are resilient, inclusive, sustaining and engaged members of their communities, ready to rise to fearlessly face challenges, solve problems and embrace diverse ideas and people.
With four campus locations, the University welcomes students from every corner of the world.In 2021, UW-Green Bay was the fastest-growing UW school in Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.uwgb.edu.
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