Why Lit Mags Matter: A Conversation with Cherry Bomb President Abby Morgan
On February 15th, 2024, the last day of the University of Pittsburgh’s Career & Internship Fair and one of the most hectic days of my academic life at Pitt, I sat down — hilariously, in post-fair business chic attire — with co-founder and president of Cherry Bomb Literary Magazine, Abby Morgan.
Cherry Bomb Literary Magazine (formerly known as Cherry Pitt) is a student-run University of Pittsburgh undergraduate lit mag co-founded by Abby Morgan in Fall 2021. I heard about the publication during my first semester at Pitt as I searched for fellow literary-minded students to connect with. Cherry Bomb’s fun name, bold logo, and delightfully silly Instagram captions intrigued me and, when I decided to restart Literary Phoenix for a class of mine this semester, I knew I wanted to learn and write about Cherry Bomb’s past and present from one of its founding members.
I met Abby between Hillman Library and Posvar Hall, which I was guided to by the joint efforts of the Transit app and a photo Abby texted me of a bright yellow statue (what I later learned is the sculpture Light Up! by American artist Tony Smith). Against the dark buildings and cloudy sky of Oakland, the structure glowed from across Forbes Avenue and I was immediately led to my interviewee.
After exchanging pleasantries, Abby and I decided to conduct the interview in the (relative) quiet of Hillman Library. Upon finding an empty room, Abby introduced herself as a senior English Literature and Communications double major. Within a few minutes of the interview, Abby established herself as a passionate member of Cherry Bomb as she described her freshman year desire for a student publication with more “creative leeway” than her “traditional” high school lit mag. This desire eventually led to the founding of Cherry Bomb, a publication that Abby loves because, in her words, “we try to keep it playful and fun...on one of our covers for our magazines, we put ‘grey aliens are real and they're sluts,’” making reference to the lit mag’s Close Encounters Fall 2022 issue.
Throughout our conversation, Abby put into words why I felt so drawn to Cherry Bomb in the first place: “we're not taking ourselves too seriously and we're trying to kind of open people's minds up to what qualifies as good art.” Herein lies why indie literary magazines matter to so many people: they help provide accessible writing and art to all who want it, which, as it so happens, is millions across America. According to the Mellon Foundation-backed 2022 Literary Arts Emergency Fund (LAEF) Impact Report, its applicants — 410 nonprofit literary arts organizations and publishers — “effectively and economically delivers cultural content and experiences to audiences” by serving over 220 million people across America, including readers, workshop attendees, and online audiences (15).
While Cherry Bomb’s audience is nowhere near this staggering figure, its impact is anything but small. Abby mentions that another reason she loves Cherry Bomb is because of its ability to give her creative friends “an opportunity to be published in a physical magazine,” making a reference to her friend, Des Greene, who has designed two Cherry Bomb covers, including its latest Speakeasy Fall 2023 issue.
Indeed, indie literary magazines are often where budding creatives are first given the chance to share their work with the world. Electric Literature editor-in-chief Denne Michele Norris writes in a 2021 editorial that literary journals, specifically, are “the rigorous proving grounds that early-career [creatives] need…[and] are especially important for [creatives] from marginalized backgrounds. They are the first venues to publish us, to affirm our [work], and to help us…build careers” (Norris).
As we closed out our interview, Abby underscored that, because “we live in a world...that treat[s] art like it’s this luxury” we aren’t giving our full respect and support towards those who professionally pursue a creative pathway in life. It is because of this reality that, according to the 2022 LAEF Impact Report, many literary organizations and publishers are “under-resourced and still vulnerable,” especially after the economic challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic (39).
It is up to readers and creatives like us to encourage institutions with the means and power to better financially support local indie literary publications like Cherry Bomb. After all, as Abby put it during our interview, “art is so necessary to who we are as human beings that I think we genuinely need to start respecting that and putting money towards it.”
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/.