By Antaneyah Johnson

Shoofly is a literary magazine that features poetry, essays and dramatic works written by KU students and alumni. Editors at the magazine are currently sifting through creative submissions to compile, edit and design the 2015 edition.
This KU publication receives about 100-150 submissions per year. The launch for the spring 2015 Shoofly Magazine is scheduled for Thursday, April 23.

“The magazine is a great medium for showcasing student work, and I love being a part of that,” said Professor Jeffrey

Voccola, adviser to Shoofly. “It is student run. They collect the submissions, decide what pieces get accepted or not, create the design, layout and copy edit.”

Currently, the managing editors for Shoofly are Janna Adams, Amanda Glenlast, Kelsey Heiss, Kayla Shirk and Hayley Virgil.

Freshman Kim Winters is one of Shoofly’s consultants for public relations . She has been in the club since fall 2014. Her job consists of writing emails to inform students if their work has been accepted or denied.

“Overall, it’s a good experience because you get the feeling that people care – which is rare in other clubs,” Winters said. “It’s organized and Professor Voccola is in [the] majority of the meetings. Not everyone is going to be at every meeting, but there is a fair amount of students that go every time. All of your work is focused into a creative outlet.”

Meetings are held in Lytle Hall at 11 a.m. on most Thursdays. Shoofly staff also holds fundraisers and writing workshops throughout the academic year, as well as student coordinated monthly readings. Normally, three people from Shoofly will read and are given 10-15 minutes. After that, the mic becomes “open,” and anyone can volunteer to read a piece for about three to four minutes.

There has also been a discussion about Shoofly launching its first website. If this happens, it will give students even more of an opportunity to be published online. However, there might be issues when it comes to staying up-to-date.
“Websites need to be current,” Voccola said. “So we’ll have to have a team of people who are able to provide updated information on a regular basis.”

For those who submitted literary pieces to Shoofly last fall, the wait for publication is coming to an end on April 23.
Coming this fall of 2015, students will have the opportunity to submit writing and get published in the next edition of Shoofly magazine. Typically, deadlines are Nov. 15 every fall semester. Submissions should be sent to shoofly@kutztown.edu.