And on the heels of the CPF announcement, I meet a new small mag, The Puritan, by way of Melissa.  I’d really like to showcase all of our fellow small arts and literaries here on the blog before “changing market conditions” force us out of print, or out of publishing altogether.  If you’ve got a small mag and have yet to strut your stuff here on the literary type, please write me at managing.editor@tnq.ca.

What does a day at the The Puritan office look like?

Sadly, we don’t have an office. So, we use whatever computers we can find to update our site and correspond with our authors. We’ve been known to frequent libraries, studies, bedrooms, boudoirs, boardrooms, and buffet tables.

When we produced a print magazine, we worked in a vault deep underground in Fallowfield, Ontario, making occasional forays into Ottawa for dice, manuals, Mountain Dew, and Cheetos.

How long has The Puritan been in print, and what sets it apart from other mags on the shelf?

We started the journal in the fall of 2006. Until the summer of 2008 and our inevitable bankruptcy, we printed seven strange-looking issues that flirted with adequacy, which were available for sale at numerous book stores, cafes, and boutiques around the snow-swept tundra of Ottawa, as well as at various book fairs, festivals, and readings across the province.

Throughout our tenure running an entirely independent, non-government funded magazine, we somehow managed to publish fiction by or interviews with some notable writers, like Robert Kroetsch, George Bowering, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Paul A. Toth, David Staines, Steve Venright, Stuart Ross, John Lavery, Blanche Howard, Cyril Dabydeen, Gerald Lynch, Theresa Kiskan, and so forth.

The Puritan began as a project to fill a void of fiction in the city of Ottawa, dedicating itself to the publication of literary prose exclusively. From the very outset, we were unafraid to edit vigourously, working closely with our authors in an effort to make the stories the best they could be. According to most of the authors, this kind of close editorial relationship was much appreciated.

Moving to Toronto and embracing a digital format has erased this need for a fiction-only mandate. Now we publish poetry, reviews, interviews, recipes, as well as short stories.

There aren’t many options for publishing quality literary work online in this country (aside, of course, from some notable examples). While we were in print, we failed to compare with the slick, well-manufactured, government-funded literary Bibles available across the nation (like The New Quarterly, for example). Retreating to the Shadow Plane of the interwebs has restored our confidence. Highlights of our new issue include interviews with Sheila Heti and Jan Zwicky, as well as fiction and poetry by a number of really great authors.

Needless to say, the journal is now purfict.

What are some of the things The Puritan does to support Canadian writers, besides publishing them?

Well, since we don’t have any funding, we certainly can’t pay our contributors – yet. However, while submitting to The Puritan won’t make you any money (or friends …), we pride ourselves on our intimate rejection process. Really! Now that we’re online, we have pledged to write the most glorious rejection letters of all time. Every rejection letter includes a bit of praise, a bit of criticism, a hint of perfume, and a whole whack of encouragement and appreciation. Journals must realize that authors are their audience – why not give each and every contributor (whether or not they’re ultimately published) their due respect?

Consumer mags measure their success in sales figures, but for not-for-profit niche mags like ours, these are hardly the most important metric. How do you define success at The Puritan?

Experience points.

Wait – also: we would like to be respected by our favourite writers and editors. By our peers. The bit of respect and encouragement we have thus far been granted has made all the difference between hope and despair.

We want The Puritan to one day be a forum wherein writers hope to find their work. This easier said than done. We’re working hard on it, so thanks for your patience.

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