NUMBER ONE MAGAZINE LAUNCHING LATEST ISSUE AT UNIVERSITY HOUSE IN APRIL

Number One Magazine, the annual student-run literary journal at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, plans to celebrate the release of its latest issue with a launch party on Friday, April 19, at 3:30 p.m., during the alumni celebrations of UMKC. The free event will be held on the patio of the University House, 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, the home of New Letters magazine, BkMk Press, and the public radio show New Letters on the Air. There will be music, light refreshments, short readings by contributors, and free copies of Number One Magazine.

In honor of UMKC’s 80th anniversary and a legacy of previous releases of Number One dating back to the 1940s, this new, expanded issue has more than 50 additional pages. The longer format extends its spectrum of voices and content, featuring comics for the first time and offering more creative nonfiction and plays. Included works on beauty, future technologies, parenthood and drug manufacture add to Number One’s exploration of the new literary pursuits of UMKC students.

Contributors Megan Cross and Jimmy Grist received two awards new to Number One. Cross’ short story “The Inn at Crescent Mountain,” a narrative about an innkeeper’s disintegrating marriage written in the style of magical realism, won the John Latosi Award for Creative Writing, named in memory of the New York poet and journalist. Grist’s collection of comics featuring stories of an interspecies friendship and the cultural critique of an intergalactic food critic, punctuated with their humorous final panels, won the Lena Vaughn Award for the Visual Arts, named in memory of the prolific Iowa painter. Attendees will be treated to a reading by Cross and will be able to view a display of Grist’s works. Both artists will be presented with their $100 prizes. The event will also feature the presentation of the Craig M. Workman Award for Performance Media to Teresa Leggard for her play about the competing values of education and maintaining a relationship.

Other contributors include Andrew Johnson, Alli Jordan, Rachael Coulter, Josh Hungate, Michael Wexler, Joseph DeLuca, Maureen Hirthler, Chell Navarro, Kara McKeever, Anne Kniggendorf, Kenneth Gerety, Bailey Grim, Bradley Tyler Davis, Brian Clifton, Anezi Uzendu, Brandi Handley, Anne Muccino, Jordan Williams, Seth Riddle and Morgan Reeves. The magazine was produced by co-editors-in-chief Nicholas Sawin and Liz Cook, online and nonfiction editor Christine Pivovar, poetry editor Barbara Varanka, fiction editor Liz Jacquinot, and associate editor Leanna Bales.

The April 19th event is being hosted by Number One Magazine, New Letters magazine, New Letters on the Air, BkMk Press, and the English Department. RSVP to numberonemagazine@gmail.com and include the number of guests attending. For more information about Number One, visit www.numberonemagazine.org or find the magazine on Facebook and Twitter under NumberOneMag.