Do you want to share your poetry with others? Maybe you would like to see a short story that you are proud of in print. Perhaps you are looking to read the work of some local writers. One way to do any of these things is by picking up a copy of The Offbeat.
“Offbeat is an independent literary journal that prints mostly MSU students, but we have an open submission process,” said Gavin Craig, an English senior and one of The Offbeat’s creators.
The Offbeat publishes twice a year, is run entirely by MSU undergraduates and holds regular readings to ensure that authors get a chance to share their work in spoken as well as written form.
The magazine began in the spring of 1999 when Craig, along with mathematics senior Timothy Carmody, education senior Susan Fletcher and English senior Elizabeth Heinen, decided to create another literary journal for authors in the area to get their work printed.
Craig said the magazine has three components.
“It gives MSU and Lansing a chance to see what local writers are doing,” Carmody said.
“Literature is an interesting art in that it requires both a writer and a reader, and publication brings it all together,” Craig added.
The Offbeat is working toward being as diverse as possible.
“It has ended up being mostly fiction and poetry but we are really looking to expand into drama and even into graphical work like photo essays,” Craig said.
Offbeat staff members hope to meet this goal by increasing their circulation to get a broader audience, along with submissions from a wider range of people.
“We’d like the content to be more exciting and unpredictable,” Craig said.
The journal has an editorial board for fiction and poetry. Each member gets a copy of the submissions and then meets with the other members to discuss what they liked and what they didn’t like.
The Offbeat also keeps friendly relations with the Red Cedar Review, MSU’s other literary digest.
“We appeal to different markets, and we have our own niches,” said Douglas Dowland, general editor of the Red Cedar Review and a history senior. “It is a matter of us working together, and we have been.”
Craig agreed that the two publications have unique qualities.
“We have been different enough to exist, but we are also intelligent enough to realize that we are working with the same group of people and we can gain a lot from working together,” Craig said. “It’s also a nice situation where an editor can write for one magazine and serve as an editor for another.”
On its Web site The Offbeat also has a link to Oats, MSU’s literary publication exclusively for undergraduates. Craig feels The Offbeat serves a purpose for MSU as well as Lansing.
“We give an opportunity for both authors to share their work with others, along with readers being given the chance to see what is going on here,” he said.
For more information go to www.msu.edu/~offbeat
