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The Kula Manu adds new foreign language category and encourages students to submit their work

Publications of the Kula Manu lay on a table top.
Photo by Kelsie Carlson

For more than 50 years, BYU–Hawaii students have produced and organized a literary magazine called the Kula Manu, according to Associate Professor Joseph Plicka. This semester, the Kula Manu editorial team said they decided to add a foreign language category to showcase the linguistic diversity at BYUH.

Plicka, the advisor over the magazine, said, “[The Kula Manu] is a record of student life and student thought and the experience of being alive at BYUH, both this aesthetic experience of encountering good writing and also this historical experience of encountering what people were thinking and feeling.”

According to Plicka, Kula Manu is a literary magazine that prints writing, art, and photography from students at BYUH every winter semester and has been a tradition for many years.

“Within five or six years of the school being founded when it was still the Church College of Hawaii, the English Department started this magazine … It’s cool to think it’s kind of this campus tradition going back almost to the beginnings of the school.”

Plicka shared how the magazine is now accepting submissions in languages other than English for the first time.

“There is a new category which the students have chosen to make called foreign language. To my knowledge, we haven’t done this yet,” said Plicka.

Sam White, a senior from Texas majoring in psychology and co-editor in chief, said the diversity at the school is why they chose to introduce the new category.

“I think it’s important to show we are a diverse school full of people from other countries. Everybody should have a chance to showcase their talents and culture and what it’s like in their country.”

Angela Fantone, a senior from the Philippines majoring in English and the Kula Manu’s co-editor in chief, said it is a place for all students to show their hard work and artistic talent.

“This is your place. This is a chance for your voice to be heard, and this is a magazine for BYUH students, run by BYUH students.”

She added this is also an opportunity for students to get published in a professional magazine with zero cost to them.

“Really, it’s the magazine of the writers,” said Fantone. “It’s not our magazine as the editors. We’re just picking the layout and making it happen. Everything depends on what people bring to us. That’s why we highly encourage people to submit [their work] because this only happens once a year.”

Plicka also said he wants to encourage as many students as possible to submit for a chance to be published.

“The worst thing that can happen is somebody says, ‘No thanks.’ This is part of the process of becoming any kind of artist, being able to be okay with rejection … that’s what it is going to be most of the time.”

He added students who submit not only may be published, but also could win cash prizes: $100 for first place and $50 for second in each category.

“[Cash prizes] are a tradition as well, at least since I’ve been here. We’ve always had money through the department to encourage people to submit and encourage cultural life on campus.”

The Kula Manu will be accepting submission for short stories, poetry, personal essays, foreign language, art, and photography until March 9.

Students can submit at https://kulamanu.submittable.com/submit.