An "other" magazine

AN "OTHER" MAGAZINE

Written by Keanu Hua

With the abundance of music videos and films and the like adorning the internet, it’s hard to remember and appreciate the days of literature – unless you’re an English major. Deeper within the department’s millions of books lies the literary journal RipRap, which publishes poetry, plays, flash fiction, short stories, nonfiction, and visual art. This year, RipRap is releasing its 45th edition, themed after the phrase “The Other.” According to co-editor-in-chiefs, Kiana Martin and Guadalupe Barragan, they were “bouncing ideas off of each other” when they developed it, with social media manager Athena being credited with the idea.

Originally founded in the 50s, RipRap has undergone two name changes, starting as Hornspoon, then Gambit, and finally, since 1979, RipRap, and is maintained by a mix of MFA and English students, led by current faculty advisor professor Lisa Glatt, with her position being drawn from the MFA program’s fulltime faculty for two-year terms. She oversees two co-editors-in-chief, MFA in poetry Kiana Martin and MFA in fiction Gudalupe “Lupita” Barragan. As a literary magazine, RipRap allows current English students to explore the behind-the-scenes work of the publishing world. “Some of our graduates work solely in publishing and some of them work in publishing in addition to their own writing,” professor Glatt explains.

Observant watchers of the catalogs and schedules will find that RipRap is new as a listed, credit-granting class, in the form of ENGL 496A/496B: RipRap Literary Journal - Producing a Literary Magazine. Professor Glatt explains that this change “gives the editors credit where credit is due” by acknowledging the skills they learn and the time that they devote to the magazine.

RipRap itself differs between semesters. In the fall semester as ENGL 496A, the team mainly focuses on promoting the past year’s issue and opening their submissions, which are drawn from the entire nation. In the spring semester as ENGL 496B, they shift towards reading through submissions, which is a collaborative effort through the senior and junior editors, alongside various readers. Once they make their final selection, the options are sent up to the editors-inchief, who are the final acceptances and denials.

Once completed, the magazine is advertised through a virtual reading and free copies to literary nonprofits and bookstores. With relaxed COVID-19 regulations, RipRap plans to host an in-person launch party on Thursday, 4/13, at SALA in Long Beach. Confirmed details will be shared on our Instagram (@riprapjournal), where they’ll also announce campus tabling and virtual readings of the book.

Editor-In-Chief: Kiana Martin

Kiana Martin is a second-year MFA in poetry student. For her, poetry mixes visual and verbal beauty to communicate, but beyond that, it can “create an experience through languages, like an act of magic.”

Before her MFA, Kiana Martin was a freelance journalist and writer in Los Angeles with multiple lines of work, including managing editor in lifestyle and beauty magazines, writing for various companies, writing blog posts and forewords. However, she soon decided to apply to LBSU’s MFA to develop her craft and teaching, coming onto RipRap last year as a junior poetry editor.

Throughout all of this, Kiana’s love of poetry has never faded. Whether at Long Beach Public Library, workshopping with high schoolers or teaching through the nonprofit California Poets, Kiana has tried to “expose kids to poetry and to also make it a relevant part of their lives.” Through reading and editing RipRap’s submissions, Kiana has developed her own skill in finding what works and what doesn’t in the complex world of literature.

After her MFA, Kiana plans to continue her literary teaching while developing a novel-length poem based on a mathematical formula “that mimics the process and experience of memory within the body.”

She hopes that more people can see RipRap “the way we see it, as editors working on it” as a collection of great pieces representative of the local LA area.

Editor-in-chief: Guadalupe Barragan

“From my students to the kids I tutor, to my friends, family members, the cancer patients in my chemo group, etc., I bring my passion for writing everywhere I go. RipRap gives me a platform to refer them to,” Guadalupe “Lupita” Barragan explains.

Joining LBSU’s MFA community, she recalls that she wanted to create a group of vignettes, which is now the basis for her thesis. Like Kiana, Guadalupe is a second-year, having joined RipRap last year, working as flash fiction’s junior editor in order to gain some knowledge in the editing world, since she had none prior.

Still, she praises her team and Kiana in particular for their work and effectiveness together, though there’s still some challenge “in finding the amazing writers in our community.” After her MFA, she plans to use her experience teaching ENGL 100 and ENGL 205 – respectively Intro to English Composition and Intro to Creative Writing Fiction – at the community college level, while simultaneously furthering her thesis into a full novel.

Senior poetry editor: Caesar Gonzalez

Back in the third grade, Caesar Gonzalez recalls turning in short stories rather than homework, and was fortunate to have a teacher that read those stories and encouraged his writing. At that time, his stories were violent tales featuring subjects such as haunted houses and monsters, which were inspired by ’90s video games like Mortal Kombat and Doom.

However, at his community college, a chance encounter in a professor’s class led him to switch to poetry. In around two weeks of poetry, Caesar encountered “plainspoken poets, people like Charles Harper Webb and Jeffrey McDaniel,” and from there, his first poem was when he was 25 as a gift to his mother. Over the years, Caesar has recognized his metaphor laden thought processes and succinct speech, both of which are especially useful for poetry.

Before RipRap and his MFA, Caesar recalls him and his five friends running a gallery out of their homes. “We would have an art show and feature writers and bands and, you know, artists of all different kinds,” he says. He also sometimes had writer’s groups outside of academia, where they would meet up over wine to discuss literature.

Despite not having had prior editing experience, he enrolled in RipRap after finding it in the list of classes. Still, his past experience in podcasting has made him a valued addition to the team, having been able to interview LBSU’s Patty Seyburn and UCLA’s Brian Kim Stefans in their Spotify and Apple Music podcasts, The Rip Rap Podcast. In brief, Seyburn spoke on the publishing world of poetry, while Stefans described the different communities of writers, including the distinction between west and east coast.

After his MFA, Caesar plans to return to Rio Hondo to teach poetry or composition, as that east LA area is still his community, one of marginalized peoples. “It’s a lot of voices that don’t get recognized usually, and I’d really like to work in that community and empower those voices,” he says.

Senior creative: nonfiction editor Ariel Smith

As a child, Ariel Smith recalls writing stories while homeschooled by her mother, but she originally placed it just as a hobby rather than a career. “I was a marine biology major, previously, and I was very committed. I was supposed to go to a different university to follow marine biology,” she says. However, a gap year made her realize that she needed to do creative writing, that, in spite of her many passions, writing was her prime one.

Before RipRap, Ariel wrote for various literary publications, 22 West Magazine and the Daily 49er, but her friend, the current junior poetry editor Terran Noreyko, was “raving about her experience in the class,” leading to Ariel signing on for short stories. However she switched to nonfiction when an opening appeared, which she particularly enjoys for its honesty and truth.

As an editor, Ariel has enjoyed the challenge of discussing and examining her team’s different perspectives on their submissions. Through it, she’s also expanded her roster of writing communities beyond just 22 West and the Daily 49er.

After graduating this semester, Ariel is planning to be flexible with her timeline, but ultimately recognizes that she needs to work. Still, she seeks to publish a book.

Other senior editors included senior art editor Tish Burns, senior flash fiction editor Jessica Mendoza, senior drama editor Damon Moore, and senior fiction editor Madeleine Wojack.