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Foreword-and
Forward!:
Toward the Felicitous Relationship of Words and Ideas
written by Professor Jane Maslow Cohen
(PDF
11 pages) 52KB
"...within
our midst poets and essayists and fiction writers already hard
at work, hewing meaning and significance out of the rocky substance
that
language is when it has to be split apart and crafted, word by solitary
word,
into hand-made artifacts of the unnatural realm of ideas...."
"The
question of what elements of the craft tradition
could be integrated into the Law School's writing program
remains in need of address. What is hoped for,
on the other hand, is clear: an additional tier or two
for the program, offered after the first year, with participation
made optional, so that sophisticated assignments that include
elements of "creativity, voice, and style, along with
attention to detail" can be worked through."
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PREFACE
We’d like to tell you that Blackacre is one of the law school’s
oldest and finest journals, that it was the well thought out brain child
of the most brilliant legal minds ever to attend UT Law, and that John
Grisham is still a bit sore at us for rejecting his submission as too
“mainstream.” We’d like to tell you all that, but we’re
hoping you’ll find the truth more compelling . . . .
The truth? Well, Blackacre Vol. 1 has been a year and a half in the making and it was started by three 2Ls with liberal arts backgrounds but very little idea of what they were getting themselves into.
The Birth of Blackacre (wikipedia def.)
In the Fall of our second year, Professor Cohen organized a Readers and
Writers Luncheon. Professors, students and other lawyers read their fiction
and poetry aloud; dozens of students asked questions about how to publish
their works and how to balance legal writing with creative writing. I
just happened to be sitting next to Matt—who at the time I knew only
as the guy from my first year section who wore cashmere sweaters with
an alarming frequency.1 Afterwards, Matt and I started talking and the
conversation went exactly like this:
Meera: Hey, nice
sweater. Do they have a literary journal at the law school?
Matt: I don’t
think so.
Meera: So you’re telling me that the law school has a full-blown musical production but no literary journal? Huh.
Matt: We could start one.
Meera: We could.
And after recruiting
Ben, The Texas Law Writers League was created.
But it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing after that . . . .
The Griping Begins
Like all ambitious endeavors, a law school literary journal had its nay-sayers.
Our personal favorite was a well-known alumnus in the “publishing
business” who agreed to meet with us but then spent a large portion
of the meeting finding creative ways to scoff at us while continuously
referring to our proposed journal as “Amateur Hour.” Needless
to say, he has been sent a signed copy of Volume 1.
Of course, there
were other bumps in the road. There was my stubborn devotion to my virus-ridden
computer, which after erasing the entire contents of my submissions disk
and asking me one last time if I’d like an herbal male enhancement
supplement finally died. [Meera’s Inspiron 2600. R.I.P. 2001—2005].
Then there was the alumnus who actually edited our Submission request
letter and emailed us almost daily to tell us that we must immediately
add an apostrophe to our name and refer to her as an alumna. [She was
wrong on both counts grammatically. Texas Law Writers League is not possessive
and the word “alumnus” is a gender-neutral term].
And Now, We Present
. . . Volume 1
Though we complain, we really do realize now how much we have learned
from this experience. We’ve learned that for every person who tells
you your idea will never succeed, there will be a dozen who will give
up their time, money and sanity just to help you realize your goal. [See
our extensive Acknowledgement page].
This journal has
allowed us to meet some of the most extraordinary people in the law school
community [Now see our interviews and outlines to get to know some of
them yourself]. And after countless nights spent working on Blackacre together, we editors inevitably got
to know everything about one another as well. We know that Ben unconsciously
pulls his hair when he’s deep in thought, that Matt much prefers
the Stones to the Beatles, that I have a constant paranoia that my hair smells,
and that we all work best when drinking cheap beer.
We hope that this
journal does for you what it did for us—that it does what art is
meant to do. We hope that it introduces you to someone. That it exposes
you to ideas you never would’ve dreamt up yourself, that it takes you outside of the library, beyond Dean Keeton Street or
away from your law firm and transplants you somewhere you’ve been
meaning to go. We hope you get a little offended, a little entertained, and a little pensive. But most of all—we hope that you get a little
inspired. Art and law are more closely related than you think. There’s
poetry in the words “Mens Rea” and “Tort”. There are
stories behind the Fertile Octogenarian and Boyle v. Kerr. So write
them.
Meera George, Co-Editor
2005
Austin, Texas
THE TEXAS LAW
WRITERS LEAGUE
The Texas Law Writers
League seeks to showcase the creative writing talents of the UT Law community,
whether the subject is legal or otherwise. Our aim is to provide a forum
in which UT Law students, faculty, staff and alumni can develop and demonstrate
their creative writing interests and abilities.
Submissions
Article
submisions instructions (PDF, 6/5/2006)
The Texas Law Writers League welcomes submissions to Blackacre on legal
and non-legal topics. We invite authors to submit fiction, poetry, drama, essays, artwork, photographs, interviews, book reviews,
philosophy, memoirs, manifestos, diatribes, gossip, recipes, jokes and anything else that you think would be interesting—but we make no
promises. Submissions are judged blindly and on a rolling basis.
Please send submissions via electronic or standard mail. An electronic
copy of any work is required, including artwork and photography. Written submissions should be typewritten, doublespaced,
and footnoted where necessary. Microsoft Word is the preferable format.
Works submitted electronically
should be sent to: texaslawwritersleague@gmail.com.
Works submitted via standard mail should be addressed to:
Texas Law Writers League
The University of Texas School of Law
727 East Dean Keeton Street
Austin, Texas 78705-3299
All submissions inquiries
should be directed to the same addresses. |
- Currently taking orders.
Domestic $20.00
Foreign $30.00
- latest issue shipped: V.1:1.
- next issue anticipated: V.2:1. (not yet avail.)
- Number of Issues/Volume: One.
- Publication schedule: Spring.
- Volume start date: May.
- Pages per Volume: 225.
- Year founded: 2005.
- Primary readership: Crateive Writing, Law Community, College Alumni.
On-line
and Hardcopy Back Issues from V.1 to current
William S. Hein
1285 Main St.
Buffalo, NY 14209
Telephone : (800) 828-7571 or (716) 882-2600
www.wshein.com
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