by Maggie Ybarra
Daily Lobo
Student-run literary magazine Conceptions Southwest is celebrating its 30th anniversary by holding an open-mic night.
Conceptions Southwest editor Clara Boling said the event is an attempt to garner additional submissions for the annual publication.
Open-mic night will be at 7 p.m. on Nov. 28 at the Outpost Performance Space.
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"What we're trying to do is provide an opportunity for some of UNM's artists to showcase their work and also to demonstrate the upcoming Conceptions Southwest deadline," Boling said.
About 35 people showed up to the Conceptions Southwest open-mic event in October, and she expects a bigger crowd at the Outpost Performance Space, she said.
"We're inviting people to bring their poetry, their short fiction, memoirs - basically any of the short works we accept in the magazine," Boling said. "We ask people to come on down and read it and give them about five minutes to read
their work."
Boling said that as this year's editor, she wanted to bring back categories that haven't been in the magazine for a while.
"Traditionally, Conceptions Southwest accepts submissions in Spanish, but we haven't published any Spanish articles in recent years," Boiling said. "We're also asking people to submit sheet music, which they used to publish 15 years ago and is a neat addition to the
magazine."
Acceptable submissions also include 2-D drawings, 3-D illustrations, digital renderings and digital photographs. Submissions should be turned in at Marron Hall,
Room 131.
Boling is also looking to pique the interest of students in the architecture department.
"We had architecture in the magazine in the past but not for the last couple of years, and we're hoping to get it back in," Boling said. "We accept digital rendering and photographs of physical models - just to basically see what people are
designing."
Conceptions Southwest managing editor Christopher George said the open-mic night was an exciting opportunity.
"We're going to rock out with our Spocks out. Anybody who is a sci-fi nerd should show up," George said. "Open-mic night is an exciting opportunity for UNM students to get down with the local venue and party in the shiznit. We're mostly looking for poetry partiers, but we'll take anybody who will chew the yank and the whack."
George said he couldn't wait to see the local beatnik crowd.
"At our last poetry slam, we had some controversial stuff, and we encourage that," he said. "Someone wrote a poem on anal sex and presented some African-influenced writings. So we welcome anything political and controversial. But please, no stories about chicken farms."
