Name: Chris Livernois
Year: Sophomore
Major: Creative Writing with a concentration in fiction
Hometown: Southern New Hampshire
UNCW’s Atlantis Magazine Editor-In-Chief, Chris Livernois, who is also a Creative Writing Major concentrating in fictional writing.
HC: What is Atlantis and what do you do with the Atlantis?
CL: Atlantis is a creative magazine of art, photography, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and feature articles that takes submissions from college students throughout North Carolina. Atlantis is entirely staffed by students at UNCW. I am the editor-in-chief, so my main priorities are running the organization and making sure everyone sticks to our production schedule so we print on time.
In addition to printing two magazines a year (one fall, one spring), we also host events including a release party for each issue that features readers from the new issue as well as local bands performing. This semester we also have our bi-annual poetry slam, a scrabble night, a storytelling festival, and we are doing a book drive to donate books to nonprofits who will distribute them to those in need of books.
HC: How and when did you join the magazine?
CL: I joined the magazine in Fall 2015 as a member of the prose and copy editor committees. My friend, Kailyn Warpole, was the copyeditor at the time, and I had wanted to apply for her position when she graduated. But after working on the prose committee and sitting in on some of the meetings, I found out the EIC position was opening and I took a leap of faith in applying for that.
HC: What is your favorite section of the magazine or favorite piece you have read/written for Atlantis?
CL: Ahh it’s so hard to pick a favorite! I’m generally a fan of the full page photography and art we publish; I’d love to get to a point where we have the resources to publish even more full page art/photography. Last issue was “Convergence” by Lemuel Heida and it was such an eye-catching piece for anyone opening our magazine for the first time. We’ve got some amazing ones coming up in our next issue, too, so I can’t wait for everyone to see those!
In the Student Media Center in Fisher University Union, Chris and his team made blanket forts in Atlantis’s office space.
HC: What is your favorite part of working with the magazine overall?
CL: My favorite part of working with the magazine is definitely giving students a chance to get published and help them start their careers as writers/artists. It can be really hard and expensive to get your work published as a student, and having a magazine for students definitely makes the submission and publishing process much more accessible.
HC: What are some of your plans for the future of Atlantis?
CL: My biggest plan with Atlantis was to increase submissions and distribution. Thanks to our insanely hardworking staff, we have already increased submissions to over 1,000. I was also able to move some of the budget around to allow us to increase our distribution from 1,000 copies to 1,500 copies. We hope to send it to more schools around the state, especially the ones whose students we are publishing.
HC: For those interested, how can people get involved with Atlantis?
CL: We have an all-staff meeting the last Tuesday of every month! Each committee also meets once a month, and all that info will be available on our new website launching next week, atlantismagazine.org
Photos courtesy of Chris Livernois.