Dispatches | September 03, 2014

By Michael Nye

I don’t have a cell phone, which drives friends and family crazy. I visit almost daily Columbia’s last remaining video store instead of joining Netflix. My presence on Facebook is ghostly at best; I often read the newsfeed but seldom post on it. And I’m a chalk-and-blackboard kind of teacher who will only go electronic in the classroom when she’s simply made to. So you get the idea. I lead a distinctly low-tech life.

That’s why I was so surprised to discover how much I enjoy reading the digital version of The Missouri Review. Not to sound too terribly self-serving but I love that my visual and “found text” features have so much additional information embedded in them. In the piece on Ruth St. Denis, one of the pioneers of modern dance, readers can click on a link and watch a clip of one of her most memorable performances. And the visual feature on the vamps and flappers of the silent era offers an abundance of silent film clips and additional biographical information on the actors and actresses referenced in the work. The features come alive in ways the print version cannot.

The digital version also gives TMR the opportunity to promote our cover artists. The summer 2014 cover is by Anthony Tremmaglia, a Canadian artist I found while poking around Emily Carr School of Design in Vancouver. Tremmagila has designed covers for Village Voice, Wired and San Francisco Weekly. His work is unique, clever, witty, fun—all those good things a cover should be. With the digital issue, readers can click on a link and go to his website and view a rich portfolio of work.

So you see I’m slow to catch on to this digital revolution. That doesn’t mean I am going to rush out and buy a cell phone. I enjoy too much the feeling of being a little disconnected and occasionally unavailable. But it does mean that I’ll enjoy the benefits of reading the magazine I love best digitally and click on video and audio files until my heart’s content.

When subscribing to TMR, try our digital issue for a year. For those of you who are fully outfitted with the latest and greatest gadgetry, the digital is readable on iPad, Nook, iPhone and just about anything else. I think you’ll love it. I do.

Kristine Somerville is the marketing director of The Missouri Review