About
Otium Is…
An online literary magazine striving to combine the notions of play and work, pleasure and critical thinking. Otium seeks nuances of voice, character, and conflict by encouraging originality in form and style.
…or,
Otium is a Big Fat Iguana, if you Ask Me:
An About Us Tale as Interpreted by Jenna Telesca
History
Legend has it that Otium was started by undergraduate Sarah Frank in November 2004. Encouraged by lecturer Achy Obejas, Sarah wanted to create a medium for longer works of prose that were getting left out of publications on campus. The internet provided the space needed for publishing.
Inspired by a vocabulary entry in Sarah Frank's Latin grammar book, the magazine was named "Otium," a word that evokes feelings of dignified leisure, ease and thinking. To that end, Sarah keeps the magazine running and the members fed.
Website
After several potential web designers were more interested in making stew than generating html, the staff successfully captured Christopher Casebeer. A Computer Science major tossed in a sea of English students, Chris somehow was able to organize the staff's aesthetic wishes and create a beautiful, yet efficient webpage.
The Iguana
Submitted by Melina Kolb, the Otium staff fell in love with the monochromatic creature and adopted her as their mascot. There is no more reason for embracing an iguana as the Otium mascot than there is reason for belly lint or brisk autumn days. The mascot is part of the way the world works and Otium accepts it.
Staff
The Otium editorial board has two loves: literature and food. They regularly enjoy both, in combination if possible. The staff very rarely calls for new editors, but somehow the quirky and the passionate appear at meetings. A tattoo is being considered.
Gratitude
The Otium staff would like to offer a thousand thanks to the writers and artists who share their work with us. Also, without our readers there would be no Otium. Except there is. Bang. Slam.
Otium
