By: Conor Lowery (lowecp29@uwgb.edu) and Elliot Kwitek (kwitem17@uwgb.edu)
The Phoenix Club was bustling at 5:00PM on May 8 as UWGB’s student-led literary and arts journal, Northern Lights, saw the launch of its 42nd volume. This volume, adorned with a skull on its cover by Payton Rhyner. had its back marked by Verity M. Langan’s art piece “The Visitor.” Opening with an art piece by Michael Niemyjski, Volume 42 of Northern Lights proceeds with its first written piece: “My Fermi,” a poem by Shia Chang. While the doors opened at 5:00 P.M., the event was still filling in by 5:30 P.M. At 5:39 P.M., it was stated that the ceremony’s late start was due to technical troubles with the speakers for journal staff and entrants attending via the Zoom televisual conferencing program. This was then followed by a loud buzz, confirming the struggles, before being continued by a loud notification sound. There was applause at the announcement that the struggle with Zoom had been resolved. By 5:43, notification sounds were continuing and there had been another buzz.
Professor Tracy Fernandez Rysavy introduced the Northern Lights Launch Party, stating that “I am the advisor that teaches the class that edits the Northern Lights,” before introducing a student who had worked on the journal seven years ago. She then clarified the difference between Sheepshead Review and Northern Lights: “Sheepshead is international, while Northern Lights only accepts submissions from UWGB students.” Rysavy then discussed issues with the journals’ bindings, noting that Northern Lights collaborated with a copy-editing class as well as having a larger class size than ever before, before admitting that, through the blind submission process, much of the editorial staff’s work was included in Volume 42 of Northern Lights, jokingly calling it the “nepo baby issue.”
Every name stated was met with applause and cheers as Rysavy listed off the editorial staff present, thanking a pair of students for helping with the technical troubles, before naming the current editorial staff’s co-editors in chief: Tiffany Jablonowski and Ginger Knauer. Ginger Knauer and Tiffany Jablonowski then took the stage, beginning by thanking the editorial staff and Professor Rysavy for making the issue exist. After Knauer praised the cover, Payton Rhyner took the stage to address their piece, titled “So Long We Became The Flowers.” Verity M. Langan then addressed “The Visitor,” explaining how their home burned down, an event that inspired the piece. They then proceeded to present the first set of pieces, beginning with Niemyjski’s art piece, before the first piece fully read was “What Happens After The Opera” by Madeline Perry. The next written piece read out was “Cacophony” by Kimberly Rouse, who was cheered by name by students from the audience as she stood up to recite it. Kimberly met exceptionally loud and long applause after the completion of reading “Cacophony.”
Spirits were lively as the student body applauded every piece read and praised the art and photography pieces. The next student to present, Cassidy Macarthur, presented a photo of ducks before discussing Northern Lights’ 2019 origins, stating that “It warms my heart to see so many people here. When we started in 2019, I never thought we would have so many people here.” Macarthur followed by discussing her photo of ducks, referencing the ducks as “in flux and in motion.” When discussing her next photo, Macarthur noted that the film was pinched when the photo was developed. Joseph D. Warner presented “To Worship The Moon,” a poem about the moon, and met cheers from the audience before the piece had started.
Through the contribution of Kristin Nigh, who could not attend, the poem “Addiction” dealt with tough issues. A dark poem, “Addiction” discusses drug addiction in a frank and serious manner. Volume 42 has a warning at its start, noting specifically that “Addiction” covers drug use and its traumatic consequences as well as the piece “Five Years Old” having depression as a subject. “Night Violators” and “Root Rot” were both noted in Volume 42 to contain “horror content.”
Northern Lights, after its foundation in 2019, has included both physical material and online bonus content. Northern Lights’ sole focus on UWGB students’ submissions has led to a number of pieces about identity, misogyny, abuse, and other serious societal issues. “Mirror Image” by Ginger Knauer places a lens on ideas such as androgyny and identity. Sheepshead Review, Northern Lights’ international counterpart, allows pieces from UWGB students and permits them to be submitted into the “Rising Phoenix” literary competition; it also allows pieces by writers who are not UWGB students. Northern Lights takes submissions from a variety of students and includes a large number of unique pieces. It releases annually in Spring.
Volume 41, Spring 2024’s issue, has a cover by UWGB student Katy Clifton, located on the UWGB-Marinette campus. The piece’s title is “Lashing Out.” The piece was made with acrylic paint. Volume 41 includes a varied amount of stories, poems and pieces by numerous students as well as digital content. Volume 42 succeeds Volume 41 with a number of pieces about traumatic themes. “Root Rot (It’ll Come For You Eventually)” by Aspen Hirschberg centers violence as well as abuse in its themes, examining them through a lens of horror.
An enormous number of written pieces saw presentation at the launch party, covering a large amount of source material. There were fiction and nonfiction pieces, pieces about single motherhood, pieces about trauma, allegorical pieces and the most literal of pieces. Poetry, prose and photography saw presentation alongside art in celebration of Northern Lights’ newest volume seeing release. The presentations ended at 7:26 P.M.
Northern Lights Journal is run by a combination of student staff and Professor Rysavy. Anyone interested in a copy of the 2025 Northern Lights Literary & Arts Journal will be able to pick them up at the Sheboygan, Manitowoc, and Green Bay campuses. There will also be copies in the student services at the Sheboygan and Manitowoc campuses, and in the Green Bay campuses library as well as in front of Professor Tracy Fernandez Rysavy office (Studio Arts 261). Copies are also available online at 2025 Issue – Northern Lights Journal – UW-Green Bay.
Professor Rysavy first started advising for the Northern Lights in 2019 and with the help of students was able to bring back the Northern Lights Journal after a two year hiatus from 2016 – 2018. According to an interview that we did with Professor Rysavy this is why it was on hiatus, “I started teaching at UWGB in fall of 2018. If I remember correctly, the professor who was advising Northern Lights retired, and the rest of the faculty had many other campus responsibilities on their plates, so the journal just faded away.” She later explained how working with students they were able to bring the journal back to being operational, “I had this small group of amazing students who were so passionate about writing and really wanted a place to share their work. I had the background to easily help them navigate the publishing process, so being their advisor was an easy decision. They also had energy for days, so they raised money for that spring 2019 issue through bake sales, and they collared everyone they knew and told them to submit, which resulted in a professional-looking journal that we were all very proud of.”