You might not have heard about it, but Quivira, Emporia State’s own student literary journal and club, is recognized as one of the oldest of its kind in the United States.

“(Quivira) has actually gotten awards for being one of the oldest literary journals in the nation and the oldest west of the Mississippi,” said Rosalie Krenger, junior English major and co-president of the club.

Traditionally, the journal is published in the fall semester, but this year it’s switching its publication schedule to spring so graduating students can take a copy of the journal with them, and if students have had their works published, other students will be able to see it.

Quivira held its annual Launch Party last Thursday in celebration of journal’s publication.

The club, which is made of members who enjoy creative writing and helping others with their writing skills, meets at 6 p.m. every Thursday in Plumb Hall, room 312. One week, they will have a formal meeting. The next week, they will have their informal meeting, which consists of workshops and poetry readings.

“I like the idea that Quivira’s main focus is supporting the student body,” said Bethanie O’Dell, senior English major. “It’s an encouraging ego boost to our students as well as a way of being involved and experiencing what it will be like to be published.”

O’Dell said that Quivira is a great way of testing the waters of the publishing world because it provides “positive, constructive criticism (and) great peer support.”

“Camaraderie and community are two of the great benefits of this club – as are the experience students get working on the journal, which includes editorial experience that students can parlay into a publishing or teaching job later,” said Kevin Rabas, associate professor of English and co-director of the creative writing program.

But Krenger said that one of the challenges of publishing the journal is that students aren’t always aware that it’s available.

“No one really knows we’re around,” Krenger said. “We’ve been here forever, but usually people outside of the English department and the creative writing department don’t really know we exist.”

The other challenge is funding. Each student pays around $500 for campus privileges, and only 44 cents of that goes into publishing Quivira. Krenger said that every student has essentially paid for their copy of Quivira, but they don’t know about it, so they don’t pick it up when they see it around campus.

The selection for each publication is done by a board of editors. Three editors read each piece, not knowing the name of the author to remain impartial, and vote to publish it or not.

Rabas said he encourages any students who may be considering submitting their work to first study the journal and then submit their works to quivira@emporia.edu. Quivira accepts short fiction up to 20 pages, poetry, artwork, photos, creative nonfiction and plays up to 10 minutes in length.

Students can pick up copies of the latest edition in Plumb Hall or the English department.