Foreword from the Editors (Fall 2019)

December 2, 2019

Dear Friends of MORIA,

My name is Ahdenae Khodaverdian, and I am the current Editor-in-Chief of MORIA, Woodbury University’s student-run, national online literary magazine for professional poets and writers. Today, I am elated to announce the publication of our fourth issue, and I would like to acknowledge and thank all the professional poets and authors who submitted and contributed to us. I have been a part of the team here at MORIA since nearly the beginning, and it has been such an eye-opening and warm experience. I am saddened to be leaving MORIA soon, but she’s made her impact on my life, my writing, and the way I view the world, and I will never forget the family that we’ve created and fostered throughout the years. 

Without a pre-determined, overarching theme or other outline set up, our team set forth in curating an issue from the ground up – something that we haven’t done since our very first issue. After sifting through and analyzing our accepted pieces, we noticed the central theme of memory shimmering through the collection, ephemeral in its sparks. If read from front-to-back, starting from the beginning of our loose narrative arc, readers can expect to encounter the following sub-themes: magic and the divine, language, relationships, identity and nostalgia, family and loss, immigration and the concept of “home,” sorrow, community, abuse, history, and pregnancy and hope. Regardless of choice in linear or non-linear reading, each piece and its accompanying photograph exists within its own space, allowing for readers to enter into our curated collection at any given point within our carefully selected arcs.

From the beginning, one of MORIA’s defining characteristics has been our commitment to diversity and giving a voice to traditionally underrepresented groups in the publishing world. Out of the 48 pieces that have found a home in MORIA’s fourth issue, 79% were written by women and 33% were written by writers of color. Our overall acceptance rate for this issue was 7.3%, which is a record-breaking number for MORIA! We are very excited for the future of our magazine as we strive towards being both selective in the overall quality of our submissions and more inclusive of diverse voices. Another aspect that we value in our diversity calculations is the age range of writers represented in our magazine, which, in this issue, ranges from 15 to 97. We are extremely proud to welcome each of these individuals into our family and to host points-of-entry on our platform into a multitude of experiences and stories.

As always, we would like to end on a note of gratitude to the various individuals and organizations who have aided in making MORIA what she is today. We would like to thank Dr. Matthew Bridgewater, Chair of the Writing Department, for his continual support and encouragement; Elizabeth Cooper, our administrative assistant, for all her aid with the behind-the-scenes details for events; Dr. Reuben Ellis, Interim Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, for his creativity and excitement about our future; Greg Houle, Director of Marketing, for his financial backing of our magazine’s website; the Woodbury Armenian Students Association, for their catering contributions in our most recent First Press Reading Series; and Dr. Linda Dove, our wonderful faculty editor, for all the long hours she puts into aiding MORIA and each student who comes her way into improving and becoming better versions of themselves. To these listed individuals, the writing faculty on campus, the students of Woodbury University, the devoted staff here at MORIA, fans of MORIA, contributors to MORIA — thank you all deeply for the role that each of you play in bringing the issues of our magazine to fruition.

We have been hard at work for this issue, which was impacted by a sudden influx of submissions in mid-September — nearly twice the amount that we have ever received before — and we hope our passion and love for the process is portrayed throughout Issue Four. On behalf of our staff here at MORIA, we hope you all enjoy Issue Four. We are all eager for what the future has in store for our magazine. Though our editorial board will continue to shift every semester, and I, too, will be graduating soon, MORIA’s commitment to quality and professionalism will remain firm, like an olive tree, roots piercing deep.

Warmest regards,

Ahdenae Khodaverdian, Editor-in-Chief
for the Editors of MORIA Literary Magazine

MASTHEAD (MORIA, ISSUE FOUR, FALL 2019)

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF                              AHDENAE KHODAVERDIAN
MANAGING EDITOR                            EVELYNA NAZARI
DESIGN / PRODUCTION EDITOR             ALYSSA TRAPERO
PROGRAM MANAGER                            JAY MCPHERSON
SOCIAL MEDIA CURATOR                      OWEN ROBERTS
TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL CUNICO

READERS          JUSTIN BERTOLAMI

FACULTY EDITOR                                LINDA DOVE, PH.D.