The Manuscript is currently accepting submissions for their magazine. Students can submit up to three works to [email protected] by December 9th. There will be another round of submissions starting in the Spring Semester. 

What is your club about? 

The Manuscript is the student-run literary magazine at Moravian University. We take creative student works and publish them in a print magazine that is then distributed around the school. We are all about encouraging student writers and artists to create something and then share it with their peers. 

When was your club established?

The earliest known edition of The Manuscript is from 1950. 

Who are your current leaders (advisors, president, vice president, etc.)?

Advisor–Professor Liz Gray

President–Gianna Tully

Vice President–Cece Zimmerli

Treasurer–Lola Offenback

Secretary–Liz Kameen

Social Media Coordinator–Gail Schoepple

When does your club meet?

We try to meet at least once a month to do a writing-related activity. We usually meet somewhere in Zinzendorf.

What is the most popular activity that the campus knows you for?

The Manuscript print itself is definitely our most known “activity” around campus. We have people from all different majors submitting their creative works. I see people all the time picking up to look through the magazines while they’re in the HUB or in the library. 

What are the biggest challenges that your club faces?

I think that our biggest challenge in recent years is getting our members more involved in the general meetings we hold throughout the year. We usually have a good turnout for things that are submitted to The Manuscript but not the same turnout for our writing events and meetings. We have been working to think of cool activities and events that would appeal to creative people and writers just trying to increase casual involvement in The Manuscript.

If you could pair up with another club for an event or project, who would it be?

I think it would be fun to pair up with either Art Club or MAC to host larger events where there are a lot of creative people and students in general. I really think that working with any club would be fun though because there are always ways to collaborate and combine interests to make a fun activity.

What is the latest project that your club is excited about?

We have been working on mini workshops for our general meetings. These workshops provide a great opportunity for writers who might not have the chance to have their work heard and/or critiqued receive feedback in a really healthy community setting. It’s also always good to exercise our own critiquing and revising muscles. Our club is working to host more of these workshops next semester so we hope to get some more people involved. 

If you had an unlimited budget, what dream project would your club put it towards?

If we had an unlimited budget, it would be cool to host a local writer who would be able to talk to us about writing either as a career or an adult hobby. There are so many people right here in the Lehigh Valley with lots of wisdom to share and it’s just as important to learn about writing as much as it is important to practice writing. 

What is the biggest challenge your club has faced? 

As mentioned before, we are really trying to increase our involvement especially with workshops and readings. A lot of these events are most enriching when there is a large writing community to support them, so the more involvement we can get, the better.