By Sammy Roth
With the help of Madeleine Witenberg â08, Deansâ Office and Summer Programs Coordinator Ryan Wilson is working to re-launch the literary magazine “The Black Boot.” The magazine was originally a project of Wilsonâs friend Ethan Antonucci, who published five issues during 2004 and 2005.
The name, Wilson said, came from an old friend who had at one time kept his writing “rolled up in an old black boot.” Antonucci and Wilson decided to give the magazine another shot this summer.
“He had been doing it by himself, kind of underground, and so we decided just to take it to the next levelâ¦and really start to try to attract some LA writers,” Wilson said.
Witenberg, who was an editor of the student literary magazine Stone-Cutters last year, got involved with “The Black Boot” when Wilson told her near the end of her senior year that he and Antonucci were rekindling the project. With Antonucci, Witenberg helped create a new website, www.theblackboot.com, and started to get the word out about the magazine.
“[It] doesn’t feel like work at all,” she said. “Reading, writing, getting the word out about up and coming writers? I couldn’t ask for a better way to be spending my time.”
Witenberg is now a co-editor of the publication from New York, where she is starting her first year at New York University. She said she will read submissions, run the magazineâs Facebook page and make the magazine known in New York by “plastering âBlack Bootâ flyers all around the city.”
“It is a great way to reach a wider audience,” she said.
The magazine officially launched this summer with an event called “The 90 -Minute Assignment,” during which a dozen writers ventured down Hollywood Boulevard to “find a story,” Wilson said. Witenberg participated in the event along with Siena Leslie â08, although she said she did not plan on joining in.
“Originally I wasn’t planning on writingâmy job was to document the extravaganza with my camera,” Witenberg said. “But about 20 minutes in, I just couldn’t resist.”
Witenbergâs story, “Stealing Souls,” and Leslieâs “Games” can be read on the website.
Wilson said that even before January, when he hopes to publish the magazine, the website will be a “breathing organism” which will be updated twice a month.
