Dear Klio Readers,
As we near the conclusion of the fall semester, the Klio staff would like to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who made this year’s edition of Klio possible. From our contributors to our interview subjects to our readers, without you, none of this would have been possible. We now are pleased to release our project we have been building over the last few months.
Our main goal this semester was to do our best to feature the work of the finest writers and artists Penn State has to offer. We also aimed to build on the past success of Klio, while adding our own mark to the site as well. Throughout this semester, we did a lot to improve Klio, such as updating our mission statement and changing the guidelines to making submitting pieces easier. A new initiative we worked to introduce this year was a podcasting page. Our goal was to create a central place for poetry podcasts as well as create our own audio content. I hosted a podcast with Penn State English professor Toby Thompson, and my hope is that the next staff of Klio continues to build on the podcast initiative.
Last year, Klio introduced a music page with a “Music We Love” playlist on Spotify. After seeing the success Klio had last year with music, we wanted to grow and expand on that initiative this year. This allowed us to continue to spotlight Penn State musicians on Klio.
Outside of music and podcasting, we added to our online collection of fiction, nonfiction, art, and poetry to spotlight those respective writers and artists at Penn State.
The Klio fiction section features nine phenomenal stories, which combine many intriguing themes and storylines. One of the stories featured in the Klio fiction section is “Starlit Realization” by Theresa Morris, which talks about a young girl taking a chance with a boy she likes. All nine pieces reflect on our mission to feature and enhance the best work of the writers at Penn State.
Klio’s 2019 nonfiction slate is light, but all three pieces present unique storylines that all of our readers are sure to find extremely engaging. For instance, “Movies and Me” by Hannah Singletary features a compelling story on a writer’s relationship with movies, as well amusements and events such as Dragon Con.
Our poetry section features a large collection of intriguing poems that offer a range of voices and themes. Over the 14 poems you’ll find in Klio, many feature raw emotions, trying times, love, and so much more. This collection showcases Penn State students’ ability to demonstrate their feelings and ways of seeing the world in finely crafted poetry pieces.
Klio 2019 offers a variety of different types of art, from photography, paintings, digital art and more, that our readers are sure to find extremely intriguing. Several artists contributed multiple artworks to this year’s edition, including photographer Kaitlyn Innerst, whose photographs include “Alien” (featured on our Klio 2019 cover), as well “The French Dancer” and “Birdcage.”
This year, Klio also got the opportunity to feature an intriguing multimedia project (something we are always interested in showcasing) in the form of a tremendous short film by Michael Switzer entitled “Wet Crimson.” This is something we feel our readers will be sure to enjoy, and we hope it plants a seed for additional multi-media submissions in future semesters!
Throughout the fall semester, our Klio staff also contributed a bunch of blog posts that featured everything surrounding the creative arts at Penn State—not only writers and their various forms of written expression, but also photography and performance poetry, theater and dance, traditional Chinese music and modern electronic dance music. Our nonfiction editor caught up with faculty member Elizabeth Kadeksky on the other side of the world in India as she pursues her latest book with the help of a Fulbright Fellowship. In addition to that, we also interviewed and took a look back at some of the work from a prior Kalliope writer, Kayleb Rae Candrilli, who recently won a Whiting Award for their most recent book of poetry. We believe Klio goes beyond the website and celebrates a community of writers and artists at Penn State, something that our blog spotlights have really tried to capture.
As editor-in-chief, I am extremely pleased and honored to have worked alongside a cooperative team with a tremendous work ethic. We all started the semester as strangers and didn’t know how Klio 2019 would turn out, but we formed a bond working together to achieve a common goal. We were all able to find a common synergy and focus on our collective mission to bring our readers the best content from all the fantastic writers and artists Penn State has to offer.
Thanks for reading!
Jake Starr
Editor-in-Chief
Klio 2019