Pro-gen-i-tor: 1. A person or thing from which a person, animal, or plant is descended or originates; an ancestor or parent. 2. A person who originates an artistic, political, or intellectual movement. Definitions and a bit of history fill the front page of Arapahoe Community College’s Art and Literary Journal, Progenitor 2013, which was presented on April 30 at an event in the Colorado Gallery of the Arts.

The name is from the school motto, “Progenitories Sumas” — “We are the ancestors.” It refers to responsibility to coming generations.

An award winner in college media, produced every spring since 1967, the handsome current volume’s cover is “Fired Sun,” a photo by writer/photographer Stacia Duvall, depicting a contorted skeleton of a tree against a blood-red sunset. It was taken in Littleton on the night the Lower North Fork Fire began, Duvall said.

Stories, essays and poetry range from whimsical to dark and include winners in the 2012 ACC Literary Contest, submitted by writers throughout the state. The art includes winners in the ACC Fine Art Juried Competition. (The 2013 Literary Contest winners were just announced. See the Writer’s Studio website.)

The staff for the journal, the Literary Magazine Production class, overseen by Writers Studio director Kathryn Winograd, included Editor Joshua P. Sullivan; Assistant Editor Holly Huner, Arts and Photography Editor Jason Colbourne; Poetry Editor Lydia Farrar; Fiction Editor Kathryn Peterson; Non-Fiction Editor Juanita Pope; Creative Director Mollie Rue; Studio ACC’s Brian Wright and staff member Josh Olson. Adviser in addition to Winograd was John Hall, Multimedia and Graphic Design faculty at ACC.

The staff’s statement about assembling the journal refers to a theme of fire and re-growth, which follows last year’s investigation of water. The staff interviewed Dr. Tony Cheng, forestry professor at Colorado State University, where they talked of regrowth after fires and formed parallel thinking about Progenitor contributors.

“Each contributor displays a strong fiery ambition, fueling personal growth in the natural cycle of being an artist … fires of life can jolt artists into digging deeper into themselves and their life experiences, releasing the energy stockpiled and sometimes locked up in psyche, heart and mind …” says a summary statement.

Writers explore a fear of flying, cancer, fighting sisters, teen and Harlem dancers, a long-running town feud and a poetic response to early flight theories of Bartolomeu de Gusmao, plus other trains of thought

It is available at ACC and online: www.arapahoe.edu/progenitor-online/2013/.