Lake Waban Blue: Welcome and Hello

I am sitting in a coffee shop eating a chocolate chip cookie. I am eating it not only because it is delicious, but also because doing so is easier than writing the inaugural entry for a new publication.

Lake Waban Blue took me by surprise. It is based on the very positive results of a writing group for Wellesley alumnae that I started on a whim. The wonderful Michelle Moody approached me about the possibility of creating a Medium publication based on the writing people were doing for this group. I warmed to the idea immediately. A few conversations later, here we are, giving Lake Waban Blue a shot at being.

This space is an opportunity to showcase first-time to veteran writers and the pieces they create for our writing group. We are looking for fiction, poetry, essays, and other writing. As we are just starting out, we are quite flexible in the media and the subject matters we will publish. For now the only focus of this publication is the literary adventures of Wellesley alumnae. We have seen a poem about broken glass, a short story about studying abroad, an idea for a novel, the start of a fable, and other wonderfully creative works. Some authors write poetry exclusively, while others have expressed interest in submitting songs. In the future we may expand to include advice columns, book reviews, and letters to the editor. In short, let’s see what happens.

All authors are alumnae of Wellesley College and members of the aforementioned writing group. If you are a Wellesley alum interested in contributing, please email Michelle and myself at lakewabanblue@gmail.com for more information.

A linguistic aside: Lake Waban Blue’s editorial staff recognizes and affirms the diversity of gender identity among Wellesley graduates. As an almost-Classics major, I also find it silly that any Latin collective with even one man must take a masculine ending, even if there are otherwise 30,000,000 women. So — although Wellesley’s community is not solely women, in order to respect that it is a women’s college and also to subvert a patriarchal convention around nouns, Lake Waban Blue will use the feminine “alumnae” to refer to a group (a complex? a pride?) of Wellesley graduates and the gender-neutral “alum” to refer to one in the singular.

Other matters of business: Lake Waban Blue does not permit racist, homophobic, sexist, cissexist, ableist, or otherwise oppressive speech in either its publications or the comments thereupon.

Well, I’m out of cookies. Thank you for joining us for this adventure. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Anita Sujin Leechor 
Wellesley class of 2010