Eastern Michigan University’s BathHouse Journal launched a freshly formatted website, www.bhjournal.net, Friday that is an international publication featuring such artists such as Austrian Anatol Knotek and Canadian Robert Swereda.
The publication’s original website, www.bhjournal.com, said BathHouse, which is edited by EMU creative writing students, is, “An online journal that promotes interdisciplinary and hybrid arts with a special emphasis on language and innovation.” The new website adapted this break down, as well.
Jonah Mixon-Webster, EMU student and editor-in-chief of the journal, clarified the difference between the journal and other entities.
“BathHouse Journal is a separate entity from the BathHouse Reading Series,” Mixon-Webster said.
Mixon-Webster said the journal needed a new look.
“I wanted to start fresh,” he said. “Give BathHouse a place where it can thrive.”
Mixon-Webster took over the editor-in chief position a few months ago, but has already accomplished much for the journal. Using the social websites Twitter and Facebook, he has provided a sound networking system for BathHouse Journal. Its Facebook page has a little over 1,400 friends, and he couldn’t be happier. He said the social websites provide “a little attention to [the] department, which is well past due.”
According to the website, “BathHouse takes its name from the 19th century sanatoriums, bath houses and mineral water wells that flourished in Ypsilanti, Michigan, until truth in labeling laws were passed. The ‘foul smelling’ waters of the Atlantis well, in the vicinity of the current Jones-Goddard dorm on the EMU campus, were bottled and shipped nationwide as a cure for 33 disorders of the blood.”
Once www.bhjournal.net is established and well-promoted, its original website will be deactivated. But don’t worry, all past issues are archived and represented on the new site.
In an Ypsilanti home, brimming with talent and Dixie cup refreshments, last Friday night’s launch party held many pleasantries, including a reading of a handful of writers featured in the journal’s Volume 10.1.
The readings were performed by EMU creative writing undergraduate student Arthur Oemke and creative writing graduates Nicholas Mourning, Kellie Nadler and Nick Compton, as well as faculty member Carla Harryman.
The party had over two dozen creative writing aficionados in attendance, a rousing success. The energy was vibrant and the hard work and preparation that went into this event was blindingly apparent.
BathHouse Journal has a new look and is looking for new readers. Visit www.bhjournal.net and see the fresh touch the creative writing undergraduate and graduate students at EMU have given it.
