The first issue of Latitudes, the new online literary review of Hawaii Writers Guild, is now available to the public on its website. The magazine went live on April 6 and will remain online for the foreseeable future.
The publication culminates a year of planning and work by members led by Laura Burkhart. Duncan Dempster, the guild’s webmaster, took on the job of designing the format and laying out the first issue.
“We put out a call to our 65 members, asking them to submit their best writing for consideration. More than one-third of our members submitted works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and drama for a total of 52 submissions,” said guild president Diann Wilson.
Members of the editing collective selected pieces for the first issue in a two-step process without knowing who the authors were. Ultimately, 16 pieces were selected for the inaugural issue — five pieces of fiction, six pieces of nonfiction, including one craft essay, one 10-minute play and four poems.
“Many more of the pieces were deemed worthy of publication,” Joy Fisher, a member of the editing collective, said, “but Laura suggested we limit the number for this first issue. We knew many technical details would have to be worked out during publication and that it would likely be a time-consuming process the first time through.”
In addition to appearing in print online, three of the four poems have been recorded and may be heard as well as read, an option the group hopes to expand to more pieces in future issues.
Although the Guild was formed on the Big Island, it now has members from Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Molokai as well as members who live on the mainland but write about Hawaii or have other connections to the islands. Guild members whose work will appear in the first issue live in Colorado, California and on Kauai, as well as on the Big Island.
To view the magazine, visit www.hawaiiwritersguild.com/litreview-first-final.html.