According to the editors of Broke, a literary journal put
together by UCLA students, there are a few reasons for the
book’s title. First, it’s a dead-on assessment of the
financial status of aspiring authors. It’s also a word of
optimism signalling their hope of catapulting into professional
careers.
“If the literary scene weren’t broke, we
wouldn’t need to fix it,” said Broke co-editor, former
dB editor and graduating senior Anthony Bromberg.
The contributors to this soon-to-be- released journal are
thinking big, submitting for publication some of the best work
they’ve managed to create during their tenure at UCLA. And
the English department is doing what it can to help them along. The
journal, which includes works from seven students from the English,
comparative literature, Spanish and history departments, is
scheduled for release this summer through independent booksellers
in Los Angeles and San Francisco and through the group’s Web
site.
“I think it’s really important for a young writer or
artist of any sort to establish a community of support and
motivation if you have any hopes of actually persevering and making
it a serious part of your life,” Bromberg said.
“Working within the creative writing department at UCLA and
finding a few students who I really respect, I felt it could only
be profitable toward our goal of putting literature out into the
world.”
The idea was conceived by current senior and Daily Bruin
reporter Tom McEnaney, who was spurred by the obstacles in being
exposed in such a difficult-to-penetrate publishing world. Inspired
by the enthusiasm of fellow students Lee Bialik and Michael Hilde,
McEnaney approached Bromberg about the idea in the fall.
“A lot of people talk about stuff like this but
don’t actually get it done,” Bromberg said.
But soon after a group of core co-editors had formed, they began
reading potential stories and meeting in Westwood to discuss the
best entries. In the meantime, the group lobbied for endorsements
from the English and comparative literature departments to help
finance the project. The group also employed the help of
best-selling author Brett Easton Ellis, writer of “The Rules
of Attraction” and “American Psycho.” He granted
the group an interview that will be published alongside the other
writers’ works.
“We hope that each future issue will also have a
successfully established American author to ground the journal in
the professional world of publishing and provide a means to inspire
the writers in their own pursuit of a professional career in
writing,” McEnaney said.
But the editors hope the stories themselves take the main
spotlight. According to Bromberg, the stories that will make it
into the journal carry similar themes that connect the journal
together.
“One of the interesting things that happened with most of
the stories is, as much as the greater themes transcend to some
kind of universal truths, it ended up being mainly a California
book,” he said. “Many had images of the I-5, as well as
different images of L.A.”
Still, what won’t make it to the final edition is the
amount of thought that went into the journal’s selection
process. The core group of co-editors read a wide swath of stories
and often had long discussions over which works would make the
final cut. Throughout the process there was a strong confidence
that what they were doing was more important to their futures and
their talents than end-of-the-quarter grades.
“There’s been success with other literary journals
in the last two years ““ there’s been big success with
McSweeney’s and Zoetrope,” McEnaney said. “Sure,
we don’t really have the celebrity attached to our journal.
But we do have Brett Easton Ellis, and some equally compelling
writing.”