We construct a flux-limited sample of 135 candidate z \sim 1 Ly \alpha emitters ( LAEs ) from Galaxy Evolution Explorer ( GALEX ) grism data using a new data cube search method .
These LAEs have luminosities comparable to those at high redshifts and lie within a 7 Gyr gap present in existing LAE samples .
We use archival and newly obtained optical spectra to verify the UV redshifts of these LAEs .
We use the combination of the GALEX UV spectra , optical spectra , and X-ray imaging data to estimate the active galactic nucleus ( AGN ) fraction and its dependence on Ly \alpha luminosity .
We remove the AGNs and compute the luminosity function ( LF ) from 60 z \sim 1 LAE galaxies .
We find that the best fit LF implies a luminosity density increase by a factor of \sim 1.5 from z \sim 0.3 to z \sim 1 and \sim 20 from z \sim 1 to z \sim 2 .
We find a z \sim 1 volumetric Ly \alpha escape fraction of 0.7 \pm 0.4 \% .