Kent State’s new literary journal set to release inaugural issue but needs help

Kent State University has long had an undergraduate literary magazine, but it lacked a graduate, student-run publication.

A pair of graduate students is trying to change that, but they need help from the community to bring the first issue to life, after some planned-upon funding fell through.

The Haymaker Literary Journal’s mission is to reflect the area’s natural landscape and unique position around industrial cities like Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown. The journal will feature fiction, short nonfiction, poetry, some visual media, some translated work and even works of drama like short, one-act plays. 

After receiving around 500 submissions from writers both locally and nationally for the first issue, the team at Haymaker worked hard to read through all submitted work and select final pieces. 

The large number of submissions pushed their release back from last spring.

“We were picked up by an email blast service called Authors Publish. And once they got a hold of this, it was off to the races,” said Anne Garwig Lucas, the managing editor for Haymaker.

While the large number of entries has been difficult to handle, Garwig Lucas is grateful for the amount of exceptional work sent in for the inaugural issue.

Now, the team is looking to raise funds to cover printing for their inaugural issue, as well as future printings and the purchase of a submission management software in the future. Donations can be made on the Haymaker website. Physical copies will be available online soon and in the English Department on campus.

Why start the magazine? Garwig Lucas remembers the a-ha moment with Thomas Mocarski, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, when both were talking with a prospective graduate student about Kent’s writing program. Mid-conversation, the duo realized the campus had no graduate literary journal. 

Luna Negra is Kent State’s long‐running undergraduate literary magazine, but it only accepts submissions from students at the university and it is run by undergraduates themselves.

Graduate journals like Haymaker provide students seeking PhDs or MFAs the opportunity to work in a magazine setting accepting submissions from around the country, like the University of Akron’s Rubbertop Review and Cleveland State University’s Whiskey Island Magazine.

The experience gained at these publications are a valuable credential for resumes.

The MFA programs at Kent State, Cleveland State and the University of Akron are all a part of one academic consortium: the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (NEOMFA). Students enter at a gateway campus and are able to attend classes at all three universities.

Knowing the importance of journal experience from their MFA experiences, and how other NEOMFA have campus publications, Garwig Lucas and Mocarski decided to start a similar project in Kent, going through all the steps it takes to be a formal university organization. They are both currently graduate teaching fellows pursuing PhDs.

As an official graduate student organization and not an informal club, the duo is helping ensure the journal is here to stay. They follow their own official constitution and follow rules and complete training required by organizations at the university.

“It gives us more insurance that this project will continue,” Garwig Lucas said.

The team on campus grew to include nonfiction, poetry and fiction editors, as well as a dozen or so volunteers that helped read through submissions. 

Why brand it with the street name Haymaker? The journal values its local connection, with pieces in the magazine reflecting life in the region. Garwig Lucas wants to emphasize this natural, everyday feeling. The journal’s website and flyers are yellow and black to reflect the journal’s name.

“We wanted the visual branding that goes with it to reflect the literal meaning of that word, of making hay, of creation,” Garwig Lucas said.

Flyers posted downtown and getting the word out through the English department were Haymaker’s strategy to reach local writers and artists. Garwig Lucas is glad to see the outreach working.

Although submissions came from all over the country, NEOMFA and Kent State undergraduates rose to the top of the pile and were selected for the issue. 

“We were really happy to see that we got good, really high quality submissions from students,” Garwig Lucas said. 

For local writers like Caid Young, who helped intern for the publication last spring and recently graduated from the NEOMFA program, journals like Haymaker are an important outlet to find people who will love their work.

“There are people out there that stumble across my poems, that remember them and keep them like I do,” Young said. That feeling, they said, is exhilarating.  

Young stresses that journals like Haymaker help make this feeling possible for as many writers as they can.

“For many smaller journals, the goal is to amplify the voices of everyday writers,” they said.

And everyday writers can be found throughout local communities.

“Northeast Ohio is a hub for writers and artists — we are all over the place here,” Young said.

For community members who are not writers, Garwig Lucas wants to make clear the journal is for everyday readers too. 

“It can definitely be for any casual reader who just likes a good short story or who wants to flip through a few poems,” Garwig Lucas said.

Luke Jenkins
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