New Book Day: NDQ@90

It’s NEW BOOK DAY at North Dakota Quarterly. I’m very excited to announce the publication of a new anthology of writing from North Dakota Quarterly edited by students in the Writing, Editing, and Publishing program in the English Department at the University of North Dakota. This new generation of NDQ readers explored back issues of the Quarterly to produce an anthology that celebrates the appearance of the NDQ 90th volume. 

The best part is that they do it in an interesting and creative way. This slim volume presents 90 sentences that capture the spirit of 90 contributions to the Quarterly. Each page provides a reference to a contribution from a past issue of NDQ and a link to the contribution in our digital archive. 

Download a free digital copy of NDQ@90 today here or grab paperback copy for your shelf here.

The complete press release appears below the fold.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NDQ@90:

A New Generation of Readers Celebrates 90 volumes of North Dakota Quarterly

This spring, the North Dakota Quarterly (NDQ), which has called University of North Dakota home for over 100 years, is releasing its 90th volume. To celebrate this milestone, NDQ teamed up with students from UND’s Writing, Editing, and Publishing Program in the Department of English to produce an innovative anthology of ninety previously published works.

Six undergraduate students collaborated on this project over the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters. Their work started with archiving back issues of NDQ which formed the basis for NDQ@90.

The students completed the digital archive of all issues of NDQ prior to 2018 after spending a month in the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections at the Chester Fritz Library scanning issues and checking for quality. They helped create digital and physical archives of NDQ, organized the journal’s new campus office, and got a peek behind the scenes on how Department of Special Collections works to preserve the university’s and the region’s history.

While doing the archival work, practicum students also had the opportunity to help edit two recent issues of NDQ.

English major, Aubrey Roemmich, noted, “One of the best parts about this class was being able to discuss the work NDQ had accepted. The Quarterly has a long history of publishing some really unique work and being able to put these pieces in an order that we thought enhanced the reader’s experience was a gratifying project.”

The main goal was to produce an anthology to celebrate ninety volumes of NDQ: NDQ@90. Their mission was to select pieces that could speak to a new generation of NDQ readers. They then wrote a sentence and a citation for each, inviting readers to engage with the original work.

Contributor Nicholas Ramos remarked: “Working on this project felt like connecting to a hundred different people, looking through windows into their lives. Although we couldn’t add all of them, I hope you’re able to make those same connections to the wonderful pieces here, and the interesting people behind them. Or at least laugh at the funny ones.”

Elena Uhlenkamp summarized her experience, “I had a lot of fun working on NDQ@90 and seeing all the unique pieces we chose and the sentences we wrote for each. It was interesting to look at the back issues and see what was published over the years. I am so glad I was part of this project to celebrate ninety volumes of NDQ!”.

Ultimately, the goal of the project is to celebrate the future of NDQ by exploring its past. Julia Tietz offers one final thought, “With only ninety pieces, we barely scratched the surface of the thousands of essays, stories, poems, and reviews in the pages of NDQ. From pieces that exemplify diverse perspectives all around the world to pieces that celebrate the beautiful landscape of the Midwest, we were able to provide a storied collection through which readers can connect, empathize, and appreciate with the journal’s history. This is what made my time with NDQ so transcendent because connection is ultimately what I believe makes literature so beautiful.”

Prof. Patrick Henry, UND English, noted: “Few universities can offer students the broad range of editing and publishing experiences that UND can offer, whether that’s in our student-run publications like Floodwall and Greenway Press, or internships and practicums with NDQ. And that students get a chance to be a part of such a historic publication as NDQ—that’s even more special!”

To fully experience NDQ@90, it can be accessed online for free where the selected works are hyperlinked in the citation. If you prefer a physical copy, it can be found as a paperback on Amazon.com.

Download or buy a copy of the book here: https://ndquarterly.org/ndqat90/