The Origin of Literary Hacks: From Accident to Miracle 

By Sarah Rosales | Published on March 4, 2024

Kean University’s Creative Writing Club, Literary Hacks, was a total accident.

Sarah Singh, a junior majoring in English and Education, had gone poking around one day wondering what happened to Kean’s previous writing-centered organizations: The Writing Nook, a sort of unofficial Creative Writing Club, and Blank Space, the English department’s literary magazine. 

These types of organizations were completely reliant on student involvement. Over time, student retention dropped due to disinterest or students graduating, so these clubs fizzled out from popularity. This is why you couldn’t spot any writing club on Cougar Walk during Kean Day or the Involvement Fair.

That is until Singh started a petition for a Creative Writing Club that would last. 

Over a dozen students attended the first official Literary Hacks meeting on Feb. 5. Singh organized a fun game where members must supply their names and an item they would bring to a hypothetical party. They were invited to attend this hypothetical party only when the first letter of their name matched the first letter of the item they were bringing, an unsaid rule figured out halfway through the game by only a handful of students. It was a clever way to learn everybody’s names in a short amount of time and involve all of them. 

Singh felt it essential to create community-building activities between members when she ran her club. She has experience in leadership, having worked with children in supplemental instruction and tutoring.

“It’s so fun [being president]. It’s very similar to being a teacher,” says Singh.

The organization is not only a fun place to share writing. It is also a place for some students to learn from the community.

“English is not my first language,” says Jeant Javier, the Treasurer of Literary Hacks. “I use this opportunity to get more involved in the language… and learn what people like, what they aspire to be, and what they want to do with their writing.”

When naming the club, Singh felt it too unoriginal to simply use “Creative Writing Club” or “The Writing Nook” since there is a book club on campus with a similar name called The Reading Nook.

The name “Literary Hacks” comes from the phrase “hack writer,” in which writers hastily write subpar stories or articles for money.

“We’re college students. We’d do that for money,” Singh says. “That’s hilarious.”

Singh hopes that Literary Hacks members will be able to build networks in the future.

Singh explains, “Writers need to be banding together. We can’t treat each other as competition.”

The literary community is small, not just at Kean. Only some people are lucky enough to become the next Ray Bradbury, and the literary world is already bleak when good writers are quickly rejected from publishing houses or literary magazines at every turn.

When somebody has another to support their writing, it can inspire you to write more.

“Not only do I want to see you guys writing a lot more, I also want to see you brave enough to try to get yourselves published, too,” says Singh.

Literary Hacks is open to all students, whether they write every single day or only once a month. 

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