Launch event for print edition: Sunday, September 29 at The Education Loft at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles. Online version of Sublevel #3 is available at sublevelmag.com.
Valencia, August 29—The third issue of the literary magazine, Sublevel, investigates the question: “What is stamina?” Through articles, fiction and dialogues, the editors ponder this all-encompassing question and suggest that you need only “look to its etymology and you will find its root in ‘the stamen,’ which in its own course comes from the Latin for ‘Threads Spun By the Fates.’” Sublevel is produced by the MFA Creative Writing Program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Sublevel # 3 kicks off with a launch event on Sunday, September 29 at The Education Loft at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles. The evening will showcase contributors to the issue as well as new participants, including a performance by Brooklyn-based comedian Morgan Bassichis, a reading by CAConrad, a conversation between Ligia Lewis and Samara Davis, and a screening of work by artist Ericka Beckman.
In defining stamina, the editors write: “Stamina might be too big an idea to hold in one hand. No matter how hard we, as editors, have tried, it keeps seeping out of grasp. In other words, it takes stamina to think about stamina; a steadfast attention span, some prowess, and a sense of determination is required to wrap one’s head around what this mysterious ability to withstand prolonged efforts is all about.”
Sublevel‘s third issue features Dodie Bellamy, Kate Kendell, Ellen O’Connell Whittet, Dana Johnson, Christina Sharpe, Okwui Okpokwasili, CAConrad, Samara Davis, Renee Gladman, Max Wheeler, Marrion Johnson and Gina Stella dell’Assunta. The print edition is designed by David Caterini and Becca Lofchie.
The “Stamina” editorial team comprises Maryam Kazeem, Elena Murphy, Perwana Nazif, Beatrice Robinson, Sabrina Tarasoff and Sarah Yanni.
Sublevel is an online literary magazine devoted to the nexus of literature, poetics, art, criticism, philosophy, culture, and politics. Sublevel inherits and reflects the dynamism of contemporary Los Angeles as a hub of literature, art, and activism, while also stretching beyond that locality. Based in the CalArts MFA Creative Writing Program, an innovative and interdisciplinary environment dedicated to the experimental impulse in thinking and writing, Sublevel is a literary publication immersed in the world of art without being in service to it. It makes no hard distinctions between creative and critical enterprise, but rather celebrates writing of any kind that is stimulating, timely, or otherwise compelling. Sublevel publishes original essays, interviews, roundtables, and other features online.
Sublevel was co-founded by Janice Lee and Maggie Nelson in 2017. Its Board of Advisors are Tisa Bryant, Gabrielle Civil, Brian Evenson, Janet Sarbanes, Matias Viegener, and Jon Wagner. Lauren Mackler is its Managing Editor.
CalArts School of Critical Studies brings together internationally recognized writers, poets, thinkers and scholars working in both new and traditional forms across a wide variety of disciplines, extending from narrative fiction, performance and multimedia to cultural criticism and political theory. The school offers two graduate programs: the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing Program and the Master of Arts Aesthetics and Politics Program. In both programs, the expertise of Institute faculty is complemented with an extensive series of readings, lectures, workshops and longer-term residencies by a diverse range of visiting writers, theorists and artists.
California Institute of the Arts has set the pace for educating professional artists since 1970. Offering rigorous undergraduate and graduate degree programs through six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts has championed creative excellence, critical reflection, and the development of new forms and expressions. As successive generations of faculty and alumni have helped shape the landscape of contemporary arts, the Institute first envisioned by Walt Disney encompasses a vibrant, eclectic community with global reach, inviting experimentation, independent inquiry, and active collaboration and exchange among artists, artistic disciplines and cultural traditions.
