About the Podcast

The Tower is a University of Minnesota art and literary magazine that publishes the best in undergraduate fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. We publish one full-size literary magazine per year, and usually host our Launch Party in spring to celebrate the publication and the literary community as a whole. This year, our editors wanted to find a safe and accessible alternative to our Launch Party; something that would help get the word out about the magazine and encourage our audience to remain creative from the comfort of their own homes. Thus, the podcast was born.

This podcast features five genre categories that span across three genre-centric episodes. In each episode, you will hear from our editors-in-chief, a selected artist, some of our genre contributors and editors, and our managing editors. Every person on The Tower plays at least two crucial roles between genre and business categories, and many have three or more; each featured genre editor will have a full description of their roles on their respective episode's page. We're excited to also include one featured artist per episode, who have been selected to share a bit about their process and what inspires them to create. Corresponding art can be seen on our Art/ArtWords Page, as well as in our published 2020 edition. A digital version of our full magazine can be viewed for free on Issuu.

In the poetry episode, you will also hear from Jamee Yung, the director of education at the Weisman Art Museum, and the editors and winners who participated in our annual ArtWords contest, where students are asked to write a piece of poetry or prose based on art displays at the Weisman. For more information on this year's ArtWords contest, including the works of art mentioned in the episode, please visit our Art/ArtWords Page. To learn more about the Weisman Art Museum and ArtWords in general, check out the Weisman's website here. I'd like to sincerely thank Jamee and the Weisman for their support of The Tower, from joining this podcast to hosting our annual Launch Party.

Episodes are available to stream for free on this website, as well as on all popular podcast streaming platforms.

I hope you will enjoy this year's podcast. Working on The Tower has been an exhilarating opportunity, and I'm so proud of our contributors and editors for their assiduous dedication throughout the year. Thank you for listening, and for your support.

Sincerely,

Afton Kelly
Managing Editor, Chief Poetry Editor, ArtWords Judge, The Tower 2020