Prairie Schooner Launches New iOS app Global Schooner
Prairie Schooner, the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s literary journal, will release its mobile app on May 1. The mobile app, titled Global Schooner: A World of Prairie Schooner Writers, features an interactive global map that pinpoints the location of authors from past Prairie Schooner issues, offering users unprecedented access to author biographies, videos, interviews, and more.
Global Schooner features profiles from more than 300 authors from around the globe who have been published in the prestigious literary journal run by the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s English department for the last 87 years. Forty-five author profiles have expanded content, including audio and video of exclusive interviews and readings. The app also provides links to Prairie Schooner’s blog, podcast, and other online content. App users may purchase an issue of Prairie Schooner or subscribe to the quarterly using the app.
The mobile app will become available for download on iTunes on May 1st at midnight and is free. Users can pay for the “Guide to Customs” feature, which allows access to additional content for $2.99. The app features pinpoints on a Google Earth interface that designate the location of authors published in Prairie Schooner. By clicking on pinpoints, app users can read the bios of authors and access other digital media compiled by Prairie Schooner.
Managing Editor and app creator, Marianne Kunkel, explained how the app release fits into Prairie Schooner’s mission as a literary journal: "Prairie Schooner's tagline is 'Writing that Moves You' and this app does just that. What we've created is cutting-edge–a Table of Contents that is sortable by our contributors' places of origin, each one pinpointed on a user-friendly, spin-able globe. Browsing our journal on our app turns readers into literary travelers."
App users can access audio and video files featuring Martha Collins, Eudora Welty, Raymond Carver, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Nance van Winckel, and others. New content will be uploaded to the app each year.
In addition, Prairie Schooner’s podcast, Air Schooner, conducted interviews with Li-Young Lee, Roxane Gay, Nikola Madzirov, and Sudeep Sen that will be available with the upgrade to “Guide to Customs.”
The mobile app and digital initiative represent Prairie Schooner’s desire as a publication to extend its influence into digital and online media, and to reflect its growing presence within the international community.
Editor in Chief and poet Kwame Dawes reflected on how the Global Schooner app enhances Prairie Schooner’s international presence.
“One of the exciting opportunities that digital literary publishing allows for is the chance to make a reality the global community of letters. Global Schooner is a genius app idea that capitalizes on the app technology to celebrate our global commitment to writers and to literature from various parts of the world.”
The mobile app was designed by David Levi of Double Apps, a Knoxville, TN- based company that specializes in map-based smartphone app design. Levi explained that the Global Schooner app is part of a progression of his desire to design user interfaces that use maps. Levi commented on the creation of Global Schooner , saying, “The app interface uses a pretty cool animated 3-D globe to show where various authors live. I think this gives the user a good sense of the diversity of authors featured in the app.” App users may recognize Double Apps as the creators of Beck Tour and Shared Time.