While looking at these three different literary websites, it was interesting to think about the idea of what is the glue that holds each one together. For Creative Non-Fiction, I found that a value that seemed especially important to them was education. In the “About” section the emphasis on allowing the community to be educated as well as providing the opprutunity to be published was especially inspiring. I saw these values really come to life in the fact that beneath the area where the foundation is describing the different outlets they provide, such as the Magazine and the In Fact Books, there was also a section below that described the whole genre of creative non-fiction in a very beautiful way, comparing it to having as many elements as “jazz music.” IF i had to define the glue of the website as stated in this quote, “to broaden the genre’s impact in the literary arena by providing an array of educational services and publishing activities,” I was also able to find more concrete examples of how this foundation is run based off of these values. There was an entire page dedicated to Education itself where there was information about mentoring for beginning writers, online classes, internships and volunteer positions. For these reasons, I would characterize much of this community as aiming to the audience of younger, student and beginning writers who want a safe space to work and create and perfect their craft. This community as a whole seemed like a space to allow this to happen. In the News and Newsletters page, there was even information about Conferences to attend and an “Artists Wanted” event.
The Southeast Review community came off as slightly different than the Creative Non-Fiction, for one reason being that the former is one literary outlet, a national literary magazine that is housed in a University, while the latter has multiple outlets for writing. The mission statement found in the Masthead page for this magazine reads that it’s goal is to “present emerging writers on the same stage as well-established ones.” It is interesting that this may seem very similar to Creative Non-Fiction’s core values, however, from the website information, I found that this magazine goes about creating their community in different ways. A large value that seems to glue this community together is finding commonality among many differences. Another quote from the masthead reads, “we strive to publish work that is representative of our diverse interests and aesthetics, and we celebrate the eclectic mix this produces.” This portion of their mission seems to be what actually characterizes the community more so than the previous quote. I read through a couple of stories in the back issue content of the magazine and I could tell that their work reflected the want to combine a mixture of ethnic rich and travel related pieces. I also liked how they had a page dedicated to links to other literary journals, this made it seem as though this magazine is very interested in getting the public to read and discover a large mix of writing. Saying this, I would say that this organization is slightly less effective for the audience of promoting young writers to contribute than Creative Non-Fiction. However, I would say that this magazine appeals to an audience who is interested in stories from other countries and cultures because as they state, “sixty members on our editorial staff who come from throughout the country and the world.” This is a very interesting statistic which brings in a new world of diversity in writing.
In World of Publishing I with professor Davis, I was introduced to McSweeny’s, therefore I was glad to get the chance to really delve more deeply into the website and find out what holds this eccentric publishing company together. I would say that this organization probably has the least amount of concern, relative to the other two I have studied, to appealing to the new writer community. I would label the audience that they most target as quirky, different artists whose work does not quite fit into the neat and tidy categories that other companies and journals might offer. I thought it was interesting to look at the differences in how “The Lucky Peach” “The Believer” and “The Wholphin” seem at first glance like very different magazines, all from the same organization. They seem to all retain the core value of eccentric and quirky statement pieces of writing, but with the more class and recognition the company gained, the need for a more classic looking magazine arose. However, I did see evidence of reaching out to the writing community with the 862 Tutoring Centers page with information about Conferences and seminars about poetry. The page about the VAD Foundation states that it is “working to increase access to education in post-conflict South Sudan by building schools, libraries, teacher-training institutes, and community centers.” This is another indication of McSweeny’s reaching out beyond its borders.
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