VOXOxford Mississippi’s Independent Literary Journal

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Alumni launch literary magazine

by Marti Covington, staff writer

Three Ole Miss graduates will hold a reception Tuesday evening to celebrate the release of Vox, Oxford’s first-ever literary journal. Louis Bourgeois, Max Hipp and J. E. Pitts are the creators, editors and sponsors of the journal, and will sell copies and subscriptions at the reception. The reception will be held at Off-Square Books from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It will include live music by Matthew Smith and the Vessels, and refreshments will be provided.

Hipp said there have already been several people who have taken subscriptions of the journal, and the reception will give others the opportunity to subscribe for $14, or buy single copies at $7 each. While Bourgeois and Hipp recently obtained masters of fine arts degrees from the university’s creative writing program, Pitts honed his craft while working as the poetry editor of The Oxford American, Hipp said. He described the journal as being focused on experimental writing, be it through short fiction and prose of less than 1,000 words or through poetry.

Submissions for the journal came from international and local writers, many of whom were contacted through various literary listservs, Hipp said. “We sorted through hundreds of manuscripts that were sent from all over the world and even from Oxford. Oxford is a very literary town,” he said. Several Ole Miss faculty members will be published in the journal, including Ann Fisher-Wirth and Anne Quinney.

Hipp and his fellow editors created, edited and funded Vox entirely on their own. “The journal is totally do-it-yourself, completely independent,” he said. The success of the journal comes as a bit of a pleasant surprise. “It’s pretty amazing, because a lot of journals that are independently-funded don’t see the light of day,” he said. Though the first edition of Vox has already been printed and is ready to distribute, Hipp and his partners are looking forward to putting out the next edition of the journal, to be released in October. “We welcome new writing,” Hipp said. Submissions are accepted from anyone who wishes to send in their manuscripts. This includes university students, as the journal has an open submission policy.

The Web site of Vox, http://www.voxjournal.com, details specific submission guidelines. It also provides the addresses, both postal and e-mail, where one can send manuscripts for review.