BTL Issue 15 Legacy Print!
Blood Tree Literature Issue 15 is here!
Not only is this BTL’s…
milestone fifteenth issue,
very first print project,
legacy issue of all-past contributors,
largest issue yet,
and triumphant return from our publishing hiatus,
but it’s also our first issue with me at the helm! (Eeeeek!!!)
Issue 15 is now available for purchase in print and pdf formats from our website, for $25 USD and $15 USD respectively. This issue honors all the exceptional creatives that grew BTL to this monumental moment, showcasing writing and art from over ninety past contributors, including our founding editor Lee Reid as the featured artist. It’s a truly extraordinary issue, full of both tenderness and blaze. I’m so proud to unveil it to you all today!!!
While we aren’t able to host a launch party for this issue, this issue is also celebrates the start of a new era for BTL. Including…
We’ve completely upgraded our Contributor Books hub to now include Contributor Features, including book reviews, author interviews, and more. (More of these features are releasing soon, in fact!)
We’ve joined the Community of Literary Magazines & Presses and the Literary Magazines Canada Collective, and have future plans to collaborate with other publications and (someday) participate in AWP.
We’ll be calling for volunteers to join our team this fall!
Please enjoy this awesome issue and all that’s to come; everyone’s work is just brilliant. I’m such a lucky editor!!!!
*Reminder that BTL is best viewed on a laptop or desktop screen in order to preserve the formatting of our contributors’ creative works.
XOXO,
Kylie
Okay, so no one reads this blog other than the book reviews, so I feel comfortable also sharing here what this process was truly like behind-the-scenes. I write this not to seem ungrateful, but because trying to be a professional writer/editor in this world does come with serious challenges, and I think that being vulnerable about the reality of those challenges is both good for me psychologically (as someone who loathes being vulnerable) and potentially helpful for other practicing writers/editors.
Besides the initial ideation and pre-planning, plus numerous consults with various professionals*, I created this issue and redid the Contributor Books hub all by myself. It was a fuckfuckfuck ton of work, hours, and headaches. I learned how to do so, so many things on the fly to make this issue happen (and some of it still isn’t nor ever will be fully fixed, RIP). It was very expensive, mostly due to my own shortsightedness in planning. I might’ve also pissed off and/or weirded-out multiple collaborators (contributors and otherwise) throughout this process with my many technical hiccups and general lack of social elegance.
*Huge, massive, reverent thank-you’s to: Jasmine Ferrufino (EIC of Chaotic Merge Magazine) for her guidance on the print publishing process; apricitycreative.space for grant coaching; Houghton Boston Printers and Allied Printers for samples; and my family for dealing with me, letting me use them as guinea pigs, and a million-zillion more reasons. Also to the BTL contributors who gave me such kind encouragements and empathy during this wild ride, as well as those who donated <3
But even though it took months of fear and mistakes to create, this issue is the coolest thing I’ve ever made so far in my life*, and I don’t regret trying my best to do it right even though it took personal sacrifice. All the authors and past artists got paid, all the contributors got a complimentary copy, the design pleased my very aesthetically minded predecessor, I opened up new publishing opportunities and got us more involved in the literary community, I was as communicative and transparent at every single step of the process as I possibly could be. Not every element worked out, like trying to partner with local printers or get grants or code the purchasing process perfectly, but most of my efforts came together enough to achieve the Blood Tree we have today and going forward.
*Compiling the final Glyph was a similar feeling, but a smaller, more intimate/niche scale since it was based solely around/out of SFUAD. This does a little bit feel like a continuation of that, having been invited onto the BTL from and with my SFUAD classmates, but definitely a much bigger scale with more severe professional and fiscal ramifications. I’ll forever be grateful though that, even years after SFUAD died, it still brings me opportunities and friendships.
I’m so pumped and proud to officially be the Editor-in-Chief of BTL now, but super scared, too. I want to continue the legacy of this sublime home for literary arts for as long and respectfully as possible, and my dream is to one day expand Blood Tree Literature into a full press. For now, let’s just hope I can keep up the “do it scared” grind as a leader and put together a gorgeous team of editors to help us continue to grow in this special, special community. <3
xoxo,
ky