On November 27, Woodbury unveiled its new national literary magazine, Moria, at a launch event in Enkeboll Courtyard that featured readings from author and poet, Neil Aitken and Woodbury faculty member and spoken word poet Mike Sonksen.
The members of Moria’s editorial board—four professional writing students and one psychology student—are part of Linda Dove’s “Digital Publication” course, and their goal was to create an entirely student-run, professional publication that would be published annually. Moria publishes poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction.
“We have a lot of freedom and responsibilities as far as our editing goes,” Adelaide Ghisolfi, the editor-in-chief, explained in an interview. “Professor Dove allows us to make our own choices. We analyze previously published work and use it to gauge the quality of submitted work. There aren’t a lot of places where students can acquire these experiences.”
Despite being the inaugural issue, Moria received numerous submissions from an eclectic mix of authors. Nearly three-quarters of the authors published in the inaugural issues are female, and nearly a quarter are people of color.
“We were expecting to get only a handful of submissions from emerging authors,” program manager Devin Hendricks said. “Instead we were overwhelmed with amazing pieces by award-winning writers.”
In addition to Dove, Ghisolfi and Hendricks, the members of Moria’s editorial board include managing editor Tania Sislian, design and production editor Tricia Lopez, and submissions editor Alyssa Pieprzyca. Woodbury student Silviya Zhivkov designed Moria’s logo.
The title of the publication refers to a special type of olive tree that was sacred in Ancient Rome. The campus of Woodbury sits on what was once an olive grove.
Moria explains on its website “that Woodbury University is a part of a tradition of learning that is larger than itself, just as literature and the writers who make it are part of a tradition of creative engagement and cultural production that is larger than any one individual alone.”
Click to read the inaugural issue of Moria