Toyon Literary Journal Collection

Title: Toyon Literary Journal Collection

Dates: 2019

Collection Number: 2018.14

Creator/Collector: Toyon Literary Journal Cal Poly Humboldt Department of English

Extent: 2 oversize boxes

Repository: Cal Poly Humboldt, Library Special Collections and Archives

Abstract: Toyon Multilingual Journal of Literature and Art at Cal Poly Humboldt is a student-run platform for voices in written or spoken word and art. Toyon recognizes diversity across disciplines, cultures, and regional boundaries with an emphasis on inclusivity, intersectionality, and multilingualism. The journal promotes environmental and social justice, both in content and in practice. This collection contains past Toyon issue layouts, art prints, paperwork, printing press negatives and other miscellaneous Toyon-related pieces. The collection demonstrates the work by students to create the literary journal and exhibits how Toyon was created over the years.

Language of Material: English

Open for research by appointment

Copyright has not been assigned to Cal Poly Humboldt. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce in any format please contact the Special Collections Librarian.

[Identification of item]. Toyon Literary Journal Collection. Collection Number: 2018.14. Cal Poly Humboldt, Library Special Collections and Archives

The collection was originally donated to Special Collections in 2018 by Professor Janelle Adsit. Materials are added to the collection when the current Toyon staff deem an item or document important enough to include in the archive. Each academic year, the Toyon class designates a “Toyon Archivist” position. This person is responsible for bringing items to the library for addition to the collection and updating the finding aid. The Toyon Collection is a collection that will expand, and be added to as the publication continues.

Toyon as a publication was founded in 1954 at Humboldt State College, now Cal Poly Humboldt. It originally only published fiction pieces and poems, but it has grown over the years to include visual art, environmental justice writing, creative nonfiction, literary criticism, and spoken word as its current additional genres. The publication collects publishes work on a local and international level, and has been read in over 80 different countries In 2017, Toyon began to publish multilingual submissions within their written genres, and while it historically has published work in other languages, the addition of Translation as a genre of focus has helped Toyon expand as a publication. In the past Toyon has had issues that reflect a specific theme, and have dedicated a portion of submissions to pieces surrounding the issue chosen topic, for example, Issue #65 was focused around the theme of Migration and the Movement of People. Toyon has changed their online presence, to make their issues easier to access on different platforms, They now have an audiobook, e-book, as well as videos and written pieces of their Spoken Word pieces. As one of their features, Toyon magazine has several different awards that are given to recognized submitters of their respective categories. While they have added, removed, or renamed awards there are still several that are still annually awarded. These current awards are: Jodi Stutz Award in Poetry, 1987. Richard Cortez Day Award in Fiction, 1999. Renamed from Raymond Carver Award in 2012. Barbara Curiel Multilingual Award ​in Translation, Multilingual, or Spanish-Language Writing, 2015. Environmental Studies Program Award ​in Environmental Justice Writing, 2016. English Department Award in Critical Analysis, 2016. Toyon Staff Award in Visual Art, 2016. Fuerza Award in Spoken Word, Audio, and Multimedia, 2017. Redwood Empire Mensa Award in Creative Nonfiction, 2018.

This collection contains material related to past Toyon Award contests, controversial cover content (1969 issue w/ letter), visual art prints, issue layout designs w/ negatives, and Toyon technical paperwork. The contest ads were created by the student staff members of Toyon to help promote the Raymond Carver short story contest ( later renamed Richard Cortez Day Award), one of many themed awards that Toyon has continued to promote when calling for submissions each year. The layout designs included in the collection display both rough and final drafts of layouts that were created by students on the production team.