Grand Valley launches online publication

Wake is a verb meaning to rouse from sleep. As a noun the word also means the aftereffects or the result of something. Both pertain to Grand Valley’s aptly named online publication, Wake: Great Lakes Thought & Culture, found at http://www.wakegreatlakes.org.

Editor Chris Haven, associate professor of writing, said the new publication was started in October 2010, following the final issue of the Grand Valley Review, for which he served as editor since 2004. In defining the transformation, Haven said Wake is not a replacement for the Grand Valley Review, but it certainly stands on the shoulders of what Grand Valley has built this past half-century.

“The Grand Valley Review evolved from the early years, as an extension of internal faculty meetings and discussions, to the later sharing of field-specific scholarship,” said Haven. “I see Wake as another step in the evolution of Grand Valley.” Through Haven’s discussions with Provost Gayle Davis and Wendy Wenner, dean of the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Wake has a mission to look outward, into the broad region of the Great Lakes, and celebrate the connections found there.

Wake consists of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, artwork and photography with a focus on the region from contributors throughout the Great Lakes. The online quarterly also promotes engagement via Twitter and Facebook, but also features an interactive blog with special topics, such as the current Great Lakes MixTape Project, that seeks readers’ suggestions of songs and musicians that best reflect the underlying musical culture of the Great Lakes region.

“Wake shares a goal similar to the Review in that it aims to foster conversation,” said Haven. “In Wake, those conversations might help us discover, explore and celebrate what it means to be the people and culture of the Great Lakes. I like to think of Grand Valley as aiming high, and I hope Wake can be a Great Lakes version of the New Yorker.”