Poets prepare "Promethia"
By Sarah Lockwood

When I hear the word "promethia," I immediately think about Shakespeare. "Othello" to be exact. I won't tell you what act, scene or line because I don't want you to know I'm that much of a Shakespeare fanatic.

The first thing most other literary types think of is Shelly's poem "Prometheus Unbound." For me, the word conjures up images of fire of the soul, of light, of a heat source other than the sun, of life or a life force, but I still don't know what the dictionary definition is.

Writing majors have no need for dictionaries, so I was content in my ignorance until this very moment. One of the reasons for my indifference is that I already know that the "Promethia" is an annual literary production by the students of the ORU English department. Realizing I had an easy way to uncover the definition without using a dictionary, I decided to ask them. (We'll get to that later.)

"We write to know that we are not alone." So last year's "Promethia" editor-in-chief Ana Maria Correa relayed her sense of the essence of "Promethia" in the first page of her edition. This sense of artistry is what attracted me to the English department as a freshman. Now as a graduating writing major, I get to help compile the art submitted by prospects all over campus. It's funny how life moves in circles like that, almost as if we are perpetually traveling around a giant campfire in the universe.

"Promethia" generally includes poetry, photography, short stories, informal essays, drawings and short plays. Students from all areas of study are encouraged to participate.

To answer those pesky questions I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I interviewed Dr. Kay Meyers, the faculty advisor for "Promethia."

When and why did "Promethia" start?
It was revived about five years ago by Dr. Walker and about two years ago I took over as faculty sponsor.

Does the publication usually have a theme like last year's "low to the ground"? It really depends on the editor. I don't know if Ana Maria consciously created a theme or [if] she simply included the types of writing that she naturally is drawn to. Christabelle [the current editor-in-chief] worked with "Promethia" last year of course, but I don't know if the same will be true of her editing style.

What does "promethia" mean?
You really could look that up in a literary dictionary.

After our interview, I took Dr. Meyers' advice and found, to my surprise, that "promethia" is not listed in any of the classical or literary dictionaries I found, so I used the 1998 Oxford English dictionary definition of "Promethean," a close enough word to be meaningful. I found that it is an adjective meaning: "daring or inventive like Prometheus, the Titan who was punished by Zeus in Greek mythology for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to the human race." So there you have it.

In order to prepare for the spring publication of "Promethia," there will be two writing workshops, one per semester. These workshops are sponsored by the English department and headed by English professors. They are an informal chance to have your work reviewed by a knowledgeable perspective. The workshops are not prerequisites for submission, but everyone is encouraged to attend.

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