April 3, 2019- About 200 people attended the 30th anniversary celebration of Forces, the Collin College literary and fine art journal, at the college’s Plano Campus Living Legends Conference Center on March 27. The event featured student literary works, sculpture, photographic images and culinary art. Students and staff from THE ARTS gallery and the college’s music and culinary departments were instrumental in creating an intimate, gallery-like setting for the event.
Keynote speaker and 2018 Texas Poet Laureate Carol Coffee Reposa addressed the importance of literary journals to society, citing works from Ernest Hemingway and Walt Whitman which she said were first published in journals like Forces.
“In my view the journal’s impact is immeasurable because of its sustained ripple effect in the culture of the North Texas community and beyond,” Reposa said. “I would love to see more journals like Forces across the nation because such publications have the potential to reach many people and thus do great good.”
Over the last three decades, Forces has served as a launching pad for student artists and authors like Collin College alumna Beth Ayers, who read her piece “Hesitation” at the event.
“The publication of my poetry in Forces gave me greater confidence in myself and my poems,” said Ayers, who served on the executive board of the Poetry Society of Texas and currently chairs the annual Collin County Poetry Contest.
Founding Forces editor and English Professor Peggy Brown and current Forces editor and English Professor R. Scott Yarbrough were honored at the event.
Yarbrough says the vibrancy of the journal is one facet which makes this student-edited periodical unique.
“This publication is a touchstone and living, beating heart, archiving the development and mentality, place, and reflection of the college and the ever-changing Collin County community,” Yarbrough said.
To view Forces, visit https://digitalcommons.collin.edu/ or http://www.collin.edu/news/publications.html.
For more information about Collin College degrees and programs, visit www.collin.edu.
Collin College serves more than 55,000 credit and continuing education students annually and offers more than 100 degrees and certificates. The only public college based in Collin County, Collin College is a partner to business, government and industry, providing customized training and work force development. In addition, the college operates the Collin Higher Education Center, which has an enrollment of 3,500 each year in partnership with The University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Woman’s University, Texas A&M Commerce, Texas Tech and the University of North Texas.