Waving Hands seeks submissions

RBC I An injured bull elk, shoulder blade shattered, careens off into the dusk.
A Northwest Colorado hillside, its skin “scoured, flayed, and carried off,” lies exposed to the shameless scrutiny of passersby.
Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch hunker down in Brown’s Hole, safe from the intrusion of pesky posses after robbing yet another train.
The topics are familiar ones because they’re close to home. They take on new life when penned by authors Yuri Chicovsky, David Morris and Andrew Gulliford, contributors to Colorado Northwestern Community College’s “Waving Hands Review.”
“‘Butch and the Boys in Brown’s Park’ was a lot of fun to write because they were very famous and robbed from large institutions,” said Gulliford, a Fort Lewis College professor who leads tours, guides raft trips and studies archaeology and history in Northwest Colorado. “There are lots of folk stories about Butch and the boys, like them ‘borrowing’ a horse and it coming back to the owners in a month, carrying tobacco cans with gold coins in them.”
Gulliford’s piece will appear in this year’s “Waving Hands Review,” now in its fifth year of publishing the “literature and arts of Northwest Colorado.”
The publication is also seeking Rio Blanco County contributors for its 2013 issue. The official deadline is Feb. 15 although submissions will be accepted until March 1. Submission guidelines are available on the CNCC website by clicking on the Waving Hands logo. Past issues of the magazine can also be viewed on the website.
Although the bulk of published work has come from Craig, Rangely student and community voices have had their share of space in past issues.
This year, Waving Hands editor Joe Wiley has an additional source of creative content in mind.
“I think an untapped source of art, writing and photography is Meeker,” said Wiley, who also teaches English and philosophy at CNCC. “There are a lot of people doing good work over there, and we just haven’t accessed that yet.”
Categories range from fiction and creative non-fiction to poetry, photographs and digital artwork.
Wiley conceptualized the magazine in 2008, when students in his creative writing class wrote for and helped edit the publication. Although this year’s issue does not have student editors, student and community submissions alike are encouraged.
“There are a lot of people up here doing interesting work who have not really had a venue like Waving Hands until it came along,” Wiley said. “We’ve published some quality stuff. There’s been something in every issue that’s been a source of pride for me and for the college.”
Waving Hands continues to focus on regional authors and artists whose work highlights the distinctive flavor of the area.
“It’s cool to get something from a professional (like Andrew Gulliford), but right beside him will be somebody like (former CNCC student) Josh Nielsen, who’s extremely talented and passionate about writing,” Wiley said. “Our mission is to publish good work by experienced and new artists. The thing every magazine likes to do is give new talent a venue.”