Pair of LC grads found online literary journal

FOR MANY OF US, the hardest thing about leaving school was the loss of summer vacation. Ah, yes, sitting around the house, lounging at the lake, staying up late, sleeping until noon, eating pizza for breakfast and putting up with parents who resent the fact that, one, they have to work and, two, that they themselves are no longer young. It’s all a rite of passage.

Yet some students can’t find enough things to do during the summer.

Take Bradley Gorski and Melissa Huggins. Both are 2003 graduates of Lewis and Clark High School, and both are entering their sophomore years of college — Gorski at Georgetown University, Huggins at the University of Puget Sound.

And both are instrumental in the founding of Delos, an online literary journal that they hope will be, in effect, a national clearinghouse for undergraduate writing.

“It was pretty much Bradley’s brainchild,” says Huggins, whose day job is as a waitress at a popular Spokane restaurant. “He approached me, and I thought it was great.”

Gorski, who says that Huggins is “sort of the co-creator of this,” is spending his summer at the pool, all right, but he’s not merely lounging: He’s a lifeguard.

Last school year, though, he began writing fiction. While searching for a national publication that might accept a short story, he discovered that there was no literary journal that catered specifically to college undergraduates.

“I looked around on the Web and couldn’t find anything that fit,” he says. “I almost gave up. And then I thought, ‘Why not create it myself?’ “

He and couple of “computer-savvy” friends designed a Web site that can be accessed at www.delosliterary.org.

In short, Delos is a site that accepts work from undergraduates all over the country. It boasts seven different categories (poetry, short fiction, long fiction, excerpts, essays, literary criticism, photography), and the best three submissions in each as judged by the editorial staff will get published.

The single best work, regardless of category, will be deemed Best of Issue and will earn its author both an award and a $100 cash prize.

Gorski and Huggins have compiled a list of, as Huggins says, “tons and tons” of college literary Web sites (Gorski says the list is close to 400). They’re in the process of contacting each one, with Huggins working from the top, Gorski from the bottom.

Once school starts and the submissions arrive, other friends of Gorski and Huggins — fellow LC grads representing schools such as Willamette University, Pacific Lutheran University and the University of Washington — will serve with them on the Delos editorial board.

Typical of the 21st century, the board members will do the bulk of their communication by e-mail.

Editor in chief Gorski hopes to have the first issue ready by Jan. 1. Once Delos is established, he wants to put out a paper edition and eventually publish four times a year.

If the site earns enough attention (Gorski already has a deal with Amazon.com), he hopes to qualify for a grant or two to help fund the enterprise.

And when he, Huggins and their friends are no longer undergraduates, they hope to find others to take their place.

For now, though, he and Huggins are back home, working at their day jobs and sending out letters in their free time.

Kind of makes you tired just thinking about it, doesn’t it?

Thank you, Brett Favre

Sports agent Bob LaMonte is touring the country in support of his book “Winning the NFL Way: Leadership Lessons From Football’s Top Head Coaches” (HarperBusiness, 256 pages, $24.95). But he’s not doing it alone.

At each stop, LaMonte is appearing with one of five NFL coaches whom he represents, and with whom he consulted to write his book. Among the coaches are Jon Gruden (Tampa Bay), Mike Sherman (Green Bay), Andy Reid (Philadelphia) and John Fox (Carolina).

When LaMonte shows up Friday at Auntie’s Bookstore (see below), he’ll be accompanied by Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren.

You might not regard a 41-39 record as exactly the epitome of winning. That’s the record that Holmgren’s Seahawks teams have stumbled to over his five-year tenure as head coach.

But the man did take the Packers to two Super Bowls. They even won one, 35-21 over New England in 1997.

Still, as Bruce Springsteen once wrote: “Glory days, well they’ll pass you by/ Glory days, in the wink of a young girl’s eye.”

Unless otherwise noted, the following events are free and open to the public.

Book talk

“ Gay & Lesbian Book Group (“Rubyfruit Jungle,” by Rita Mae Brown), 7 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington (838-0206).

“ Hastings Valley Readers Group (“The Piano Teacher,” by Lynn York), 7 p.m. Thursday, Valley Hastings, 15312 E. Sprague Ave. (924-0667).

The reader board

“ Jane Kirkpatrick (“Hold Tight the Thread”), 7:30 p.m. Monday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

“ Elizabeth S. Brinton (“My American Eden”), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

“ Bill Siems (“Shorty’s Yarns”), 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore.

“ Mike Holmgren and Bob Lamonte (“Winning the NFL Way: Leadership Lessons from Football’s Top Head Coaches”), signing, 2 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore.