In 1995, Mark Smallwood, an M.F.A. candidate in fiction, approached Mike Palmquist, an English professor at CSU, and suggested the idea of starting a new literary journal that would be published on the Internet and linked to the English Department's home page. Mark and Mike wrote a proposal for the journal and submitted it to Pattie Cowell, chair of the department. Mark Sanchez, another M.F.A. candidate, had spoken with Mark Smallwood about starting an online journal and got involved with the project. Their main goal was to create an online publication that would include interviews with authors, quality fiction and poetry, literary criticism and nonfiction work.
Mark Smallwood left the program in the spring of 1996. That fall, Mike suggested that I work with Mark Sanchez to start the journal as part of my master's project. Mark and I wanted to maintain the original vision for the journal. We wanted the journal to be completely student run and include diverse work from authors both within and outside the CSU community. Mark created the name "nieve roja" (red snow) because it reflects the Colorado and cultural influences on the publication. We wanted the design of the journal to be attractive, but simple and easy to navigate. Our hope was that the journal would benefit from the hypertext medium, but not be completely driven by it.
The Nieve Roja Review will probably move in new directions as future editors bring their own visions to the project. However, the Review will continue to publish quality work and provide it free to the Internet community. We hope that readers and writers alike will find this journal a useful space for sharing their work and ideas.
--Marla Cowell
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