Featuring: Walker Cook

Written by Natalie Finander | Graphics by Kelly Vines | Layout by Saachi Kotia

Q. What is your name and pronouns? A. Walker Cook, he/him/his.

Q. When did you join OutWrite? A. I joined OutWrite as a Staff Writer in fall quarter of my Freshman year.

Q. How long have you been involved in OutWrite? I’ve been in OutWrite for two years now, and plan on staying on staff until I graduate from UCLA, or they fire my ass.

Q. What role or roles have you had while being a part of OutWrite? A. I’ve been the News Editor, a position I saw a need for and created, since the end of my Freshman year. News Editor became an official Editor position this school year, but since I was the only one to apply and I also made up the position to begin with, I got to keep the job. Additionally, because of my high school experience with the audio/visual field, I (along with former Editor-in-Chief Siobhan Chapman) started the OutWrite Radio Hour on UCLA Radio and became OutWrite’s first Radio Lead. Throughout my time in OutWrite I have somewhat miscellaneously lead what’s been deemed the archiving project’- the ongoing process of organizing, preserving, and digitizing all the vintage Ten Percent and OutWrite prints. My biggest accomplishment in life has been receiving the ‘Most Enthusiastic’ award from OutWrite in my Freshman year, so now I have to go on living knowing I’ve already peaked.

Q. Why did you want to join OutWrite? A. I’m not gonna lie, this club has some very hot people in it and I’m just a lonely gay who dreams of moving out West and finding a bigcity romance. Also, I was told there would be boxed wine.

Q. What is your favorite part of being in OutWrite? A. It’s the little things that made this newsmagazine one of the most interesting experiences of my life, which is saying a lot because I’m from Florida. From witnessing first-hand scuffles between white supremacists and student activists amidst the protests outside Ben Shapiro’s speech on campus, to investigating the origins of Strap-On Barbie (no, I will not explain further), to recording a Bernie Sanders speech in-person so I can publish a piece about it later, to puking from altitude sickness at a mountaintop editor’s retreat in the woods, OutWrite has gifted me so many formative, intense, and cherished memories, it’ll be one of the last things to go once the dementia kicks in when I’m old.

Q. How do you feel OutWrite is received in the broader UCLA community? A. If by the ‘broader UCLA community’ you mean the straights, they’re pretty chill with it, but I’d say overall most people even in UCLA’s queer community don’t know what OutWrite is. We simply don’t receive the financial support from UCLA’s administration that student media organizations like Daily Bruin get which enables having a massive, specialized staff and wide-scale print distribution--not to mention the custom Daily Bruin pens. You can find freshly-printed stacks of the Daily Bruin every ten feet on this campus, but OutWrite lacks the funding to do more than two print editions per year of about 500 prints each, so no wonder we’re not exactly Gay Buzzfeed.

Q. What do you hope to see in OutWrite’s future? A. The future? Honey, it’s the end of days.