How Funding Can Help Lit Mags: A Conversation with Forbes & Fifth Editor Alyssa Machi
On February 16th, 2024, to kick off the end of one of the most hectic weeks of my academic life at Pitt, I sat down with editor of Forbes & Fifth journal, Alyssa Machi.
Forbes & Fifth is a journal founded by University of Pittsburgh undergraduates in Spring 2012 and sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (OUR). I first discovered the publication during my first semester at Pitt when I submitted a couple of poems to their Fall 2023 open call. Since then, I’ve heard the journal’s name spoken of fondly in discussions surrounding the Pittsburgh literary scene and have come to admire them not only for their unique collection of creative and academic writing, but also for their dedication to fairly compensating their hard-working editors.
After traversing Posvar Hall for the first time ever and meeting up with Alyssa past its Einstein Bros location for our interview, I soon realized I wasn’t alone in my admiration. Upon introducing herself as a senior Communication Rhetoric and Public & Professional double major who joined the project in her sophomore year, Alyssa pointed out her favorite aspect of being an editor for an interdisciplinary publication like Forbes & Fifth: “I've read a lot of things that I don't think I would have gotten the opportunity to read if not for being an editor in the journal.”
In addition, after I mentioned Forbes & Fifth’s unique compensation of its editorial staff, Alyssa spoke of a previous internship experience she had at another Pittsburgh-local literary magazine, City of Asylum’s Sampsonia Way, where she had the opportunity to “[write] grants so that we could get money through the school to pay our student editors, as well as our student writers.” She described the internship as a “cool project” as writers — especially student writers — “aren’t often paid” for their work.
Indeed, grants are one of the only ways that most indie literary projects can secure funding. In a 2021 editorial, Electric Literature editor-in-chief Denne Michele Norris writes that her nonprofit publication is “funded by a mix of grants, advertising sponsorships, membership fees, and grassroots donations” (Norris).
It is because of this reality that historic grants such as the Mellon Foundation-backed Literary Arts Emergency Fund (LAEF) have been such resounding successes: in 2020 and 2022, LAEF “distributed an unprecedented $7,830,000 to 376 nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers in 43 states across the US, as well as Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, which were disastrously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic” (“Literary Arts Emergency Fund”). According to the 2022 LAEF Impact Report, 78% of 267 grantees responded that, without this funding, they would’ve had to scale back some of their programs, with 31% responding that this lack of funding would’ve forced them to eliminate staff positions or pause operations entirely (40).
Clearly, funding is a huge determinant of whether an indie literary project thrives or barely survives and its work like the internship that Alyssa took part in at Sampsonia Way that allows for unique publications like Forbes & Fifth to prosper. Because of this, it is vital that enjoyers of lit mags, writers, and editors alike band together and encourage organizations with the power to fund these impactful projects. As written in Forbes & Fifth’s inaugural Spring 2012 volume of its name’s origin: “...whether you're a chemistry guru or a poetic charmer...be prepared to open your mind to new experiences...After all, like Forbes & Fifth, we may be heading in opposite directions, but we will forever stand side by side.”
For further reading:
"2022 Impact Report - Literary Arts Emergency Fund." National Book Foundation, www.nationalbook.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-literary-arts-emergency-fund-report.pdf.
Norris, Denne M. "Forget Billionaires! The Future Of Literary Magazines Depends On Us." electricliterature.com/forget-billionaires-the-future-ofliterary-magazines-depends-on-us/.
"The Literary Arts Emergency Fund." www.nationalbook.org/programs/literary-arts-emergency-fund/#tab-1.