{"id":3368,"date":"2026-05-07T13:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/?p=3368"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:03:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:03:42","slug":"illuminati-launch-party-spring-issue-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/2026\/05\/illuminati-launch-party-spring-issue-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Illuminati Launch Party \u2013 Spring Issue 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tricia Cherry —<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 30th, the party celebrating the publication of the Illuminati\u2019s 2026 spring issue was held in Wilks Conference Center from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. The event featured free issue prints, catering, an open mic portion, and a surprising, heartfelt farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A small flyer for the event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Illuminati (not that Illuminati) is Miami Regionals\u2019 student-run creative writing organization, headed by professors Eric Melbye and Jimmy Hollenbeck. This year, the Illuminati won Miami\u2019s \u201corganization of the year\u201d award. Beginning in the 90s, the Illuminati\u2019s mission for over thirty years has been to cultivate creativity among Miami Regional students. Every year\u2019s issue is published toward the end of every spring semester, with members having the opportunity to submit their poetry, short stories, and artwork to be included over the proceeding months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details on the organization can be found at Notthatilluminati.wordpress.com<\/a>. This site also hosts free-to-read copies of all publications.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The 2026 Spring issue of the Illuminati: A Journal of the Arts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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On the back is a list of this issue\u2019s contributors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The open-mic was an opportunity for attending members to read poetry or short stories, either their own or the works of others. Throughout the readings was a raffle in which winners received a high-quality Miami University tote bag with a Miami tumbler cup, an Illuminati yoga mat, and free issues of both this year\u2019s spring edition and a collection of past years\u2019 publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the festivities, it was announced that Professor Jimmy Hollenbeck will be leaving Miami University after this semester. A professor of creative writing, Jimmy is loved by both staff and students here at Miami, and his classes are always very popular; he was described by one of his students as \u201ctaking the scary out of writing.\u201d Jimmy was honored with a farewell gift shortly before the open mic. When asked where he\u2019ll be going next, Jimmy said he didn\u2019t know for sure, but that he was already in communication with other universities.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Jimmy Hollenbeck, showcasing his goodbye gift from his colleagues.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Only time will tell how the Illuminati will fare in the future without Prof. Hollenbeck, but submissions for next year\u2019s issue of the Illuminati will begin next year. Until then, creatives are encouraged to continue writing, drawing, and painting over break. Students can join the organization at any time, and all students are welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tricia Cherry — On April 30th, the party celebrating the publication of the Illuminati\u2019s 2026 spring issue was held in Wilks Conference Center from […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":9361,"featured_media":3373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-communities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3368"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3377,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368\/revisions\/3377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}