A cypress dome is a terrestrial phenomenon that occurs when a depression is shaped into the Earth, encouraging an excessive pooling of shallow water. Cypress trees thrive in these wet depressions, vigorously colonizing the pond-like areas. These water-logged craters often wear into natural circles, enabling the cypress trees to concurrently grow in a circular pattern. Thus transpires, the formation of a “cypress dome.”
In the late 1980s, an English professor appeared before the University of Central Florida’s provost to discuss becoming a tenured faculty member. Toward the end of the meeting, Dr. Don Stap was asked if there was anything he wanted to do to improve the English department. He suggested the creation of a literary journal on campus, written and directed entirely by students. Dr. Stap would be successful in his endeavor for both tenure and in the founding of The Cypress Dome.
The first few years of the journal were led by a small group of editors. “I picked . . . five or six students, and that was it,” Dr. Stap said. “It just went really nicely as a small group like that.”
It was in this first small group of editors that The Cypress Dome got its name.
“One of [the editors] was a biology major and she mentioned something about this thing called a cypress dome,” Dr. Stap said. “It’s a particular kind of ecosystem, and it’s unique to Florida. It sounded kind of odd at first. ‘The Cypress Dome’ seemed like a strange name for a literary journal. But, the more people thought about it, the more we were interested in doing that. But that’s it; that’s all it was. It was just thinking about names and one person saying, ‘how about The Cypress Dome?’”
The first edition of The Cypress Dome—named for the one that grows naturally on UCF’s campus—was published during the 1989-90 academic year with only seven editors to edit, design, and assemble the edition. For years afterward, The Cypress Dome would continue to be an intimate project, the staff consisting of only about half a dozen. To Dr. Stap, the most rewarding part of advising the journal was watching these editors come together to publish other students’ work.
“I was always really happy to see them feel fulfilled as the editors, as the people whose work was published,” Dr. Stap said. “You feel really good about what was happening. I always love that.”
Eventually, Dr. Stap would retire from his position as advisor of The Cypress Dome. Upon reflection, he admitted that the most satisfying part of his role was watching the students work with the passion that they had.
“Every year was satisfying to see it worked on for months and then all come together at the end. For [the edition] to look good, and the [editors] would be happy, and [they would] be happy with the people who were publishing it. It was very satisfying the entire time I was involved with [The Cypress Dome].”
Dr. Stap continued to serve as the journal’s faculty advisor until 2009, with a few exceptions. Eventually the journal had become an internship class that up to 20 students could be selected for. The second longest serving faculty advisor to The Cypress Dome was Laurie Uttich, who served from 2016-2022. Laurie made considerable innovations in how the class was organized, including introducing the “Early Bird Submissions” process which gives student editors the chance to practice giving feedback, and offers student writers the opportunity to revise before submitting. Laurie introduced her students to the business side of the journal: having writers sign contracts, bringing editors to the print shop, hiring a student graphic designer. Alums of the journal during Laurie’s tenure have fond memories of how much they learned working with her.
Laurie Uttich continued the practice begun by Lisa Roney of inviting UCF alums to be readers at the annual The Cypress Dome Launch Party. UCF Student Government offered funds for a speaker, so the RSO would procure funds to bring a published alum to campus.
Among our illustrious alumni are the following writers, with their most recent publication listed. Many of them published in The Cypress Dome and many also served as editors.
Jaroslav Kalfar Spaceman of Bohemia
Nathan Holic, Bright Lights, Medium-Sized City
Kandi Steiner, author of scores of best-selling romance novels
Julie Iromuanya, A Season of Light
Jennifer Torres Sanchez, YA author
Jen Glantz, Bridesmaid for Hire
Dana Kantrowicz, writer and editor
Kelle Groome, How To Live: A Memoir in Essays
Dan Lopez, The Show House, A Novel
Edgar Gomez, Alligator Tears
Lindsay Hunter, Hot Springs Drive
Lu Chekowsky, Don’t Buy What I’m Selling
Francesca Battitstelli, Christian singer/ songwriter
Faculty Advisors of the Cypress Dome through the years
1990-1995 Don Stap
1996 Terry Thaxton
1997-98 Stap
1999 Jeanne Leiby
2000-01 Susan Hubbard
2002 Don Stap
2003 Ivonne Lamazares
2004-08 Don Stap
2009-10 Toni Jensen
2011-13 Darlin’ Neal
2014-15 Lisa Roney
2016-2022 Laurie Uttich
2023 Rochelle Hurt
2024-25 Kathy Hohenleitner
2026 Kianna Greene
Throughout its existence, the Cypress Dome has been an ecosystem—a natural phenomenon through which UCF literature has flourished and thrived. The journal’s editors acting as a shallow body of water, providing the foundation on which the students’ art may grow. The prose and poetry submitted by UCF students are branches, reaching toward the sky, toward one another, toward greatness. The years slowly unveil themselves in a circular way, allowing us to look back on the journal’s body of work and notice—only after time has passed—that the decades’ worth of art has a way of intertwining itself in concert, growing together in a natural, beautiful way.
“The Cypress Dome Society has been an invaluable resource to me on my writing life journey. It helped me see the world of writing beyond the undergraduate degree and gave me the skills I needed to make writing and editing a part of my professional career.”
–Madison Bernath, Solutions Development Manager at Alaka´ina Foundation Family of Companies
“The Cypress Dome published my first poem, and in the next issue, another poem won first place in the annual contest. I still remember that flash of joy and astonishment, of unbelievable luck that others could value my work and publish it. I felt welcomed into the world of writing and writers in a very tangible way.”
—Kelle Groom, author of three volumes of poetry — Five Kingdoms, Luckily, and Underwater City — and the memoir I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl, named a Library Journal Best Memoir of 2011, a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, and a Barnes & Noble Great New Writers selection.
“My experiences as an editor of the Cypress Dome have been incredibly influential– not only in giving me the know-how to establish and advise a literary magazine for my students, but also in developing the interpersonal skills necessary to function in the professional world. Real world experiences like this are vital to a university cultivating well-rounded graduates.”
–Carly Gates, high school teacher, Palm Beach County, Florida
“The cypress dome was an awesome natural feature near UCF’s campus in the early 90s. It’s probably even more awesome now, but the Cypress Dome was an excellent chance to work with Don Stap and my fellow creative writers in the early 90s, too. Cypress Dome helped us highlight UCF’s writers’ natural talents, as I learned lay-out skills and as we showcased all the best that the campus’s creative chroniclers had to offer.”
–Adam Sonstegard, Professor of English, Cleveland State University