The editors of Catalyst, UCSB’s student literary magazine, give new meaning to the phrase “starving poets.”

The 6-year-old annual publication has typically relied on funding primarily from Associated Students Finance Board, which granted $1,000 to last year’s magazine. Suffering from budget constraints during Spring Quarter, Finance Board allocated only $500 for this year’s magazine, Co-editor Marissa Bell said.

Eleven local poets will present their work in the Women’s Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today to support the magazine. Catalyst editors are asking for a $5 donation to cover printing costs.

Catalyst Co-editor Nathan Bays said it has dubbed the event “Mayday” because it is the last effort to raise money for publication costs.

Catalyst, which is published around the beginning of June, receives forms of writings including poetry, short stories and screen writing from UCSB students.

Students will be able to participate in an open-mic session between 10-11:30 a.m. and are free to listen to the local poets until 5 p.m., Bays said.

Currently, Bell and Bays have collected $1,200 from campus departments and from some of the budget last year, which will cover the cost of printing 400 to 500 copies.

“We have some money so we can print the thing, but we want to print as many copies as possible,” Bays said.

By increasing publicity and targeting specific professors, Bell said they collected over 120 submissions, double the amount from previous years. A larger amount of quality literary work improved the content in this year’s Catalyst, Bell said.

“It shows that the campus is participating more and that people have more of an interest in getting work out there and making it look nice,” she said. “It really represents the thoughts and feelings of people on campus.”

Visiting English professor Barry Spacks helped Bell and Bays find local poets, and will be reading his poetry tomorrow afternoon at 3. Spacks said he related to the students’ efforts to publish a magazine because in college he had to fund raise money to put out his literary magazine, though it only cost $300.

“I’ve been there,” he said. “I had an undergraduate magazine at the University of Pennsylvania, and [the university] gave us absolutely no help to get it out.”