Who Am I?
My name is Natalie Cohen (she/her) and I’m a 20-year-old mixed media artist, writer and aspiring book editor. I’m studying to get my BA in Public and Professional Writing from the University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.
I have a passion for reading — specifically, I have a passion for reading indie literary projects (i.e., journals, magazines, and zines). However, in the past several years, literary projects — both renowned and indie alike — have struggled to keep afloat due to a lack of financial support.
While I’m only one person, I want to use my voice for good within my own literary community of Pittsburgh. By appealing to local institutions and organizations such as the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences and The Mellon Foundation, I hope to spark change in how we choose to fund literary projects.
What is Literary Phoenix?
phoe·nix
/ˈfēniks/
noun: phoenix; plural noun: phoenixes
(in classical mythology) a unique bird that lived for five or six centuries in the Arabian desert, after this time burning itself on a funeral pyre and rising from the ashes with renewed youth to live through another cycle.
rise like a phoenix from the ashes — emerge renewed after apparent disaster or destruction.
"The once-dead literary journal suddenly flourished like a phoenix risen from the ashes."
Literary Phoenix is an online publication dedicated to helping dying literary projects rise from the ashes.
The motif of the phoenix (defined above courtesy of Oxford Languages) is inspired by the Community College of Allegheny County’s student publication, the Phoenix Literary Arts Journal, that — from Fall 2022 to Spring 2023 — I helped resurrect from a near-20-year-long hiatus.
This publication relies on both secondary and primary research compiled into a personal narrative, Q&A Profile, and white paper to emphasize the financial need that indie literary publications have. Specifically, this research attempts to appeal to Pittsburgh-local institutions to help support Pittsburgh-local literary projects.
