We Have a School Lit Mag, Finally
HAFS has a literary magazine now, and your creative self need not be repressed any longer. Mirinae Literary Journal was founded in 2018 with the aim of providing a venue for HAFS students to submit their creative work, and the March issue is currently in production, with submissions open until March 15. Although the project began within The GUILD, the school English literature club, all HAFS students may submit their poetry, prose, artwork, scripts, screenplays, and music for consideration. (An inside source informs me that in most cases, submission = publication. Mirinae is inclusive, non-dream-crushing, and very, very friendly.)
Mirinae Literary Journal, which takes its name from the Korean word for “galaxy,” is a direct response to the lack of venues in which Korean writers and artists honing their craft in the English language can submit and publish their work. There are few English literary journals in Korea at the secondary school level, and the practice of submitting to them is limited to a few choice individuals, many of whom are considered by their peers as hard-core lit geeks. But these few aren’t the only ones with a story to tell; adolescents are taking to posting videos of themselves dancing, singing, playing instruments, and rapping on various social networking services, which demonstrates the omnipresent need for self-expression among young Koreans. (Of all these art forms, hiphop music is on the rise, reflecting a worldwide trend — High School Rapper, which is like an American Idol for teenage rappers, is currently on its second season.) However, not everyone is audacious enough to perform in front of the camera with their political and personal agendas. For introverts, the pen provides an effective and powerful medium through which they can let their passions run unbridled.
For this article, I was inclined to conduct a self-interview of sorts, considering I am the founder of Mirinae (and now I’ve just outed myself as a journalist who is abusing her power to self-espouse her own cause) and am indisputably the most qualified person to speak about the motivation and message behind this new project, a feat of indulgent metacognition which is as egotistical as it sounds. Here it is.
Q. Why did you start Mirinae?
A. I’ve basically outlined the benefits of having a school lit mag above, so if I talk more about that, this article will become redundant. But the reason for starting Mirinae, the motivation on a personal level, is that I’ve always written alone. There have been occasional collaborations — shout-out to fellow English drama club Outburst script writer Se Eun “Sandy” Kim — but I’ve mostly been working solo. There are very few people that can pull me out if I fall into a rut or get stuck in writer’s block, so it gets pretty lonely. Creating The GUILD, an English literature club, was part of the remedy, but it wasn’t a complete solution. Mirinae is basically a public extension of what I’ve been doing for years, possibly for most of my sentient life, and I hope it convinces other closet writers like me to come out, engage other writers in literary discourse, and have a lot of fun.
Q. How are you going to run Mirinae?
A. I would ask that you refer to our website, mirinaeliteraryjournal.weebly.com, sparse as it is. Under the “Submit” tab you’ll find information about our reading periods, submission guidelines, and what we are looking for generally. I’ve also posted in the HAFS 13 and 14 groups so people know about this opportunity to submit their work. The “Masthead” page, where the staff will be listed, is mostly empty at the moment, Mirinae will be run by The GUILD club members. As usual, regular club applications for The GUILD this year have been exceptionally dismal, so we will be looking to expand our membership in the coming months. Anyone who wants to join up will have an opportunity to do so, so keep your Facebook notifications on.
Q. Why the name Mirinae? It sounds awfully like that camp the second graders went to on an overnight trip last year.
A. I concede to that point, it is exactly like the name of that camp the second graders went to last year, which is ironic, because I didn’t even like that trip. I actually didn’t realize the connection until after I made the website, so it was too late. In my defense, I set out to find a purely Korean name from the beginning so that the Korean identity of the magazine would be evident, although we would be mainly publishing English literature. I love all things interstellar, so “mirinae,” which means “galaxy,” was chosen. I could have gone with “eunhasu,” which means the same thing, but “eunhasu” is one of the many words in the Korean language that came from Chinese characters being spelled out according to their Korean pronunciation. “Mirinae,” which has no such affiliations, felt purer and truer to the spirit of being Korean. That being said, I regret the name overlap with that insufferable camp, but most of my classmates don’t seem to hate that trip as ardently I do, so hopefully the name of our literary journal doesn’t repel the general population.
I’ll end with a statement from Jaeyeong Jeong, the current club president of The GUILD and fellow Editor-in-Chief of Mirinae Literary Journal, who handed over this quote at my urging while noting that he felt like a guy from an infomercial.
“Literature, especially in this fast-paced world that we live in, is a way for people to take time to delve deeper into the human mind. It’s just that most are either too fearful or too lazy to try it. I believe THE GUILD’s lit mag will be a simple and an easy way for students to try literature, with stories from a group of writers who share the same conflicts and ideas that a young adult stuck in high school will have.”
Well said, Jaeyeong. Let’s just hope Mirinae doesn’t tank.
