Launch Party Reflection

It was a beautiful day — a warm, welcoming 75 degrees — on a Wednesday night in May. The class arrived in droves starting around 6 PM for setup (though, not much setting up needed doing) all dressed in varying degrees of formality. We sat, we chatted, and awaited our party-comers to arrive and set in motion the final event of our publishing season.

Oh, boy, did people come! I’ll be honest — I was worried we wouldn’t have many attendees outside of our contributors. But, almost immediately, we were packed. The cake was cut and almost immediately devoured (even if it was missing the decal we wanted and ended up just being plain) and more chairs had to be brought up to account for our larger-than-expected attendee pool. Even still, there were more people than seats; I myself sat on a countertop in the far back.

It was really, honestly remarkable the response we received from the event. Our speakers did a fantastic job with their speeches, and the audience kept their attention on them like nobody’s business. Our copies of the book practically flew off the table. How great is it to have a community as responsive as this? It makes our jobs at Northern Eclecta really just worth doing.

The most exciting part was our awards — no one knew except for us in the class, but we had a little secret. We held a vote for best submissions (art and writing) that we then presented with little awards! It was an awesome extra way to give back to our contributors on this special night.

Ultimately, as the night pulled to a close, the sun starting to set but still keeping its same warmth, the launch party could not have gone better, or been held on a better night. Thank you to all of you who joined, and thank you for following us through our journey this year! We look forward to seeing you again next spring.