The biggest challenges turned out to be every aspect of starting a magazine! I had no idea what I was doing. I had to learn everything as I went along, and I made mistakes at every step in the process. Thankfully, I started surrounding myself with incredible people who I trusted to fail with me and respect the work of our writers and artists as much as I did. We have grown so quickly, and the staff at both Harbor Review and Harbor Editions are incredible. Small Harbor would not exist without the folks behind the scenes working so hard every day.
NC: Can you elaborate on the significance of defining Small Harbor as a “feminist press”; how does that influence what and who you look to publish?
AB: Defining the press as feminist was essential when we sat down to write our mission statements. Both statements were written collectively by the staff. When I began the magazine, I was committed to gender parity. I wanted to make sure that, at a minimum, half of our contributors were women or nonbinary. This commitment to gender parity also included the masthead. So defining the press as feminist was easy. We were already doing the work.
As we worked to craft our missions, we also discussed how we needed to make the same commitment to BIPOC writers and artists. Since that time, we've worked to make sure, at a minimum, half of the folks we publish are BIPOC writers and artists.
Our missions demand that we read and consider bios. Many presses and magazines read blind, but we worried that reading blind allowed readers to rely on stereotypes of what "good" writing is. Our missions influence how we review work and who we publish because we are more careful considering the work of all marginalized writers.
NC: There has been incredible growth within Small Harbor Publishing, now including prizes, manuscript feedback, chapbook competitions, and Harbor Editions. Can you speak more on these new opportunities for writers and how they came about?
AB: The press side of Small Harbor began because I was rejecting so much good work for our micro chapbook competitions at the magazine. Our first two chapbooks were solicited from Sarah Freligh and July Westhale. Both had been finalists in competitions at the magazine. Both were willing to let me experiment and make mistakes learning how to publish books.
All of our growth has happened for the exact same reason! I hate rejecting good work, and it forced us to work quickly to make new opportunities for writers and artists. It also forced us to grow our staff and provide new opportunities for writers and artists as readers and editors. Because we are a non-profit, we've always had the mentality that our job was to put money in the hands of writers and artists, and this has allowed us to grow even faster.
