“June’s issue is very artful — All the stories have some art aspect to it. Not by design, just happenstance,” says Encore Magazine editor Marie Lee, who joins Cara Lieurance to preview the stories set to be published next week.
The cover story centers on the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency at The Mill at Vicksburg, a former paper mill being redeveloped by entrepreneur Chris Moore into a multi-use destination featuring lodging, museums, restaurants, and housing. The residency, established around 2016, is unusual in that it is paid, includes housing, and requires artists to create work reflective of the mill itself. Artists from around the world have participated, leaving behind sculptures, murals, cyanotype works, multimedia pieces, and even ephemeral installations — including a striking cover image called Ice Pedestals, in which an artist crafted ice spheres embedded with glacial deposits from the surrounding landscape.
The issue also celebrates Friends of Poetry on its 50th anniversary. The Kalamazoo organization is credited with elevating poetry in the community through chapbook publishing, events, and serving as the genesis of the now-independent Kalamazoo Poetry Festival. Some founding-era members, including Elizabeth Kerlkowski, remain involved to this day…