City Tech Writer

This week, we spotlight a beautiful piece by student writer Cristian Meza, “A Trip To The Supermarket.” Meza’s deceptively simple poem transforms a boy’s grocery excursion into a haunting meditation on inequality, and how we might break the cycles of gain and loss that extend across generations.

Meza’s poem is accompanied by a visual adaptation, illustrating CTW’s mission to amplify student writing with the audiovisual capabilities of an online publication. Read the poem, and then watch the visual adaptation, here.

Once you’re inspired, don’t forget to submit your work for consideration to this year’s issue!

Happy reading, and happy writing,

The Editors

As we invite student writers and sponsoring professors to submit work from last spring or this fall, we continue our tour of some standouts from CTW Vol. 19!

“The Haymarket Trial,” written for the class Theater of Law ( THE 3000 ID / LAW 3000 ID), is a dramatic interpretation of a key event in the history of American radical politics. Co-written by Rebecca Armand, James Adesman, Claire Lacza, and Karmen Wu, the play portrays the events leading up to, and following, the Haymarket Square riots of 1886, in which labor unrest and clashes with police led to an explosion that killed several policemen. The students’ play moves its audience through an array of scenes, including the trial of the Chicago anarchists blamed for the explosion.

Because plays are meant to be seen and heard, the students’ script offers an example of how words can serve the creative process in other forms of media. To that end, this publication of “The Haymarket Trial” is accompanied by images throughout that depict how the play would look if staged. In a first for this publication, it also features an AI-assisted audio adaptation of the play, complete with a different voice for each of the cast of characters!

Read “The Haymarket Trial” and listen to the accompanying audio here!

Happy reading, and happy writing,

The Editors

As we continue to welcome submissions for the 20th volume of City Tech Writer, we continue to highlight selections of Vol. 19!

Today, we want to give a shout out to Kimora Toussaint, a Health Communications student, whose proposal for an awareness campaign about racial bias in medicine is featured in CTW Vol. 19. Kimora’s illuminating combination of research, student surveys, graphic design, and campaign planning shows us how writing can involve broadcasting multiple voices (e.g. the students whom Kimora surveys) while also organizing those perspectives through one’s own set of convictions. Her piece also shows us the ways that writing can be mobilized to make a concrete difference in our immediate surroundings – for example, the halls of Namm, General, and the New Academic Building.

Check out Kimora’s piece, as well as a slideshow spotlighting the major questions her campaign raises, here.

Happy reading, and happy writing!

-The Editors

As we continue to welcome submissions for the 20th volume of City Tech Writer, we’re proud to spotlight select works from Vol. 19, to give you a sense of the kind of voices we love to amplify.

Last spring, we were proud to run the first CTW creative writing competition. This competition, which runs in the spring, differs from the current call for submissions, because a) it doesn’t require a sponsoring professor, and b) it asks entrants to respond to a prior year’s CTW entry. One of the winning entries, Angelica Tellez’s “Family,” did an amazing job taking up the themes of Alexis Garcia’s “How To Push Your Children Away From Religion,” found in the Vol. 18 edition of CTW. Angelica’s piece builds on Garcia’s depiction of familial dysfunction, following several vignettes from the lives of children who must find an emotional center amidst the instability of parental strife.

“Family” is supplemented by one of the video guides that accompany select pieces in CTW. You can watch the video comparing and contrasting Angelica’s and Alexis’ pieces here.

Happy reading, and happy writing!

-The Editors

Dear CTW community –

Hope you had an amazing and refreshing summer! We at City Tech Writer are excited to look ahead to another year of working with student writers from all disciplines and bringing your perspectives to the attention of the wider world.

First, we’re excited to share with you Volume 19, which came out at the VERY end of Spring 2024.

Rebuilt from scratch, this new iteration of CTW’s website features student work, along with accompanying images and audio versions for increased accessibility. Throughout, supplementary videos also offer guides for student discussion and response to the works in this volume. Additionally, this issue boasts a few new firsts:

-Winners of the first City Tech Writer creative writing competition, in which entrants were challenged to engage with a prior year’s entry. Congratulations, Angelica Tellez and Daniel Levin!

-An audio adaptation of the student-written play “The Haymarket Trial,” about the seminal 1886 trial of anarchists in Chicago. This adaptation incorporates sound effects and AI-generated voices for an immersive aural experience.

-A visual adaptation of Cristian Meza’s wrenching poem, “A Trip To The Supermarket”

We’re also pleased to open up submissions for the 2025 edition of City Tech Writer, which will welcome work from Spring or Fall 2024.  We’d love to have more talented writers join this year’s issue! Please read the guidelines (available in the Openlab site menu) and submit at this link. Once you submit the form, the confirmation page will show you a Dropbox file request where you can upload your entry.

Happy writing! We’re excited to hear what you have to say.

Thank you to all who submitted entries for consideration for this year’s issue of City Tech Writer. We are now sending out responses to those whose sponsored work has been selected as finalists.

If you didn’t get a chance to submit anything by the deadline, though, have no fear! Today, we are announcing the first ever CTW Creative Writing Contest!

We will be accepting submissions that respond, either directly or indirectly, to any entry from the 2023 edition of City Tech Writer. The submissions do not need to be sponsored. 

Please see below for contest rules:

1. Students can submit 1 entry per category in up to 3 of the following categories: Poetry, Fiction, Flash Fiction (100 words max), Drama, Personal Essay, Visual Arts, Writing About Anti-AAPI Discrimination (max 700-800 words)
2. All entries must respond to an entry from the 2023 edition of City Tech Writer (citytechwriter.com)with the exception of the AAPI category, which should engage with the essay “Many Years After” from the 2022 edition. The submission can explicitly mention the original entry, or it can indirectly respond to specific images, philosophical concerns, or sociocultural topics that the original entry addresses.
3. If your submission does not explicitly mention the original entry, you must include a 50 word paragraph, at the end of the submission, explaining how your entry responds somehow to the preceding year’s entry.
4. The entries do NOT have to be faculty sponsored; however, you are advised to consult with a professor or at least a writing tutor before submitting your entry.
5. Students already tapped for inclusion in CTW 2024 may submit 1 entry in 1 category.
6. There is no minimum or maximum length for any category other than Flash Fiction (100 words max) and the AAPI category (700-800 words max). However, please use common sense. 75 word personal essays and 50 page novellas alike will likely not make the cut!
7. For the category Writing About AAPI Discrimination, we are looking for short reflections from AAPI students responding to the essay and accompanying documentary “Many Years After,” found in the 2022 volume of City Tech Writer.

   Sponsored by this year’s AAPI anti-hate campaign, entries in this category should draw attention to how/whether the coronavirus and its aftermath have shaped your understanding of AAPI ethnic or cultural identity.

   A selection of entries will be published as part of a roundtable discussion entry in this year’s volume.

8. Entries must be received by 5 pm on MONDAY, April 15 (please note updated deadline). Submit by filling out the designated Google Form and uploading to the Dropbox file request, which will be visible on the form’s confirmation page.

Happy writing!

Professor Lucas Kwong

Editor, City Tech Writer

You’re invited to join a virtual panel discussion featuring some of the brightest voices from Vol. 18 of the college’s all-digital journal of outstanding student writing, City Tech Writer!

11.9.23, 3:30-5:30 EST

Online

Register here

Student writers Jaroslav Sykora, Judley Leriche, Alexis Garcia, and Jackie Lespiegle will discuss the process of drafting, revising, and refining their work for a broader audience. Representing the best of fiction, personal essay writing, and critical analysis at the college, they will offer a preview of the kind of work we’re looking for as we take submissions for Volume 19. If you’re interested in attending, register at openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/citytechwriter/events!

We’re looking for excellent student writing (from any discipline) to City Tech Writer, Vol. 19, by uploading a Word document or PDF at the submissions page (scroll to bottom). Submissions must be sponsored by the professor in whose class you wrote your submission.

The deadline for submissions is November 25, 2023. 

City Tech Writer is a journal of outstanding student writing from ALL disciplines. We’d love to see work in the humanities and STEM alike, representing the full breadth of our students’ stories, research, and ideas.

Dear CTW community –

In its fourth year as an all-digital journal, City Tech Writer continues to immerse reader and writers alike in the possibilities of the written word. Once again, you are invited to sponsor submissions for this year’s issue.

We’re looking for excellent student writing (from any discipline) to City Tech Writer, Vol. 19, by uploading a Word document or PDF at the submissions page (scroll to bottom).

The deadline for submissions is November 25, 2023. We are open to extending the deadline in cases where essays may come in after this date.

City Tech Writer is a journal of outstanding student writing from ALL disciplines. We’d love to see work in the humanities and STEM alike, representing the full breadth of our students’ stories, research, and ideas.

Dear writers, sponsoring professors, and members of the broader college community,

We had a blast celebrating students’ writing at the Virtual Reception yesterday. Following opening remarks from Provost Pamela Brown and Dean Justin Vasquez Poritz, students read excerpts from their work, after which we collectively toured the new edition of the website!

This marks the third year that City Tech Writer has been available online as an all digital, multimedia issue. This year’s issue includes:

– Audio versions of all pieces
– Supplementary videos for select pieces, including slides for integrating classroom discussion of student work
– Short films from our Communication Design students
– First ever publication of plays from Theater of Law, including images partially rendered with AI-generated technology, which depict how the scripts would translate to the stage
-First ever publication of Spanish language essays, complete with English translation
-Publication of the 2023 Literary Arts Festival Charles Matusik Fiction prize winner, “Fix It,” by Jaroslav Eliah Sýkora
– An annotation feature ideal for use in the classroom
-Outstanding writing from an array of disciplines!

The website exists due to the indispensable work of Professor Atilio Barreda in Computer Systems, who essentially designed this digital forum from scratch.  Special shout out to him for his contribution.

I invite you to peruse the volume to see the ideas, insights, and leaps of imagination that our student writers have to share this year. And I hope you’ll keep your eyes peeled for an array of events this Fall, which will showcase writers from the essay and give them a chance to say more about the writing process. We’ll be holding these events in advance of the 2024 issue, Volume 19!

On that note: submissions to Volume 19 are now OPEN! Please select the above “Submissions” page of the menu to find out more. We are accepting submissions from Spring 2023 as well – so if you’re a student who’s produced something for a class, or a professor who’d like to sponsor a student’s writing, don’t be shy!

Thank you again to Provost Pamela Brown and Dean Justin Vasquez-Poritz for their support, and to our sponsoring professors for upholding our students. Most of all, thank you to our student writers for continuing to give life to the written word at City Tech.

Professor Lucas Kwong, editor

Hello CTW community –

With late fall already upon us, the next stage in this year’s CTW submissions is fast approaching. I wanted to let you know that I’d like to extend the deadline for this year’s submissions to November 25, 2022!

Please head on over to the submissions page (if you’re a sponsoring prof or a student who has a faculty sponsor) to submit your work for consideration! https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/citytechwriter/submission-guidelines/

best,

Professor Kwong