SEED projects 2017 – Writing, Writing Everywhere

The Three Lamps

Dr Paula Morris (Faculty of Arts)

This SEED grant helped build an online literary journal called The Three Lamps (T3L) (www.thethreelamps.com). The first issue featured work by three established authors – University of Auckland Masters of Creative Writing (MCW) graduates and a retired professor – as well as work by eight current undergrads, one recent grad, and three current or former MCW students. This site is an ongoing showcase for the creative work (fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction).

It also affords an opportunity for students who’ve undertaken Stage 3 Writing Creative Prose to serve as editors, translating the skills they’ve learned in writing workshops into a real-world public output. The editorial team comprised ten students who formed three sub-teams, each responsible for a genre. Each team had a leader and each student took responsibility for editing one piece, sourcing visuals, and working with an author for publishing approval.

One student served as deputy editor, contacting publishers and authors for permissions, visuals and book excerpts for the T3Books section. She also wrote bios for all published authors, and helped me edit the T3Shorts section, which featured short pieces about the city.

Early on, I showed the team the commissioning brief presented to the web developers, so they understood the site’s kaupapa (or purpose), look and feel. When the site was in design stage, a number of the editorial members gave feedback to influence the design. Four members attended an event in November, 2017 to demonstrate the site to guests.

The online literary journal continues with issues in Spring 2017and 2018. The Spring 2019 issue currently in progress.