1. What have you been doing since graduation?
The summer after I graduated Lang in 2014, my dad and I drove cross-country to my native Northern California and soon after I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my MFA in Poetry at Otis College of Art and Design. I’ve also spent the last two years missing New York more than I ever thought I thought I would, although my nostalgia for NYC has mostly been for food, mostly O Cafe’s pão de queijo.
2. You just published your first small press magazine. Tell us about it.
Yes, I also published my first magazine since I graduated Lang. It’s titled Outlawing, which began as my Lang thesis. It is a literary skateboard magazine about some of the great and under appreciated members of the respective San Francisco and New York skate scenes. I wrote Outlawing as a love letter to the overlooked peoples and cultures of any society.
During my last year at Lang I was entering a lot of contests to get funding for the magazine, but all was in vain. So after a friend helped me make a short video, about a year after graduation, I created a Kickstarter campaign and ended up raising over $1,700 to print the magazine. A friend of mine from Parsons, Tasia Prince, created the illustrations, and I designed, edited, wrote all the content and took the majority of photos for the magazine. I self-published Outlawing under my new press WARM MiLK PRESS
I just recently finished mailing out the first round of orders of Outlawing. While this project took some time and pain, the whole process was very rewarding and I can’t wait to make more books!
3. The magazine is dedicated to “Everyone Never Addressed in a Book.” Why?
I made that dedication because I have always been curious about the dedication pages in books, as they rarely come with explanations. I am also very envious of the adoration for the people on dedication pages, and sure I’m not alone. I think it must be very special to be a muse, but I assume most of us rarely embody this role via the front pages of someone’s book. I wrote the dedication to provide all of us who have never been the “dedicated to” the opportunity to be muse.
4. What was the most valuable aspect of studying writing at Lang for you?
I love Lang and The New School so much! I always tell anyone who will listen about Lang’s amazing program. I love the seminar aspect of the classes, studying writing by actually writing and the encouragement for students to express our own thoughts about books and writing instead of being told how to think about them. Being able to explore my own writing in seminars and workshop, as well as the amount of feedback I received from both classmates and professors, has tremendously helped my outlook and approach to writing.
Also, being a part of the New School Free Press was not only great for my writing, but an amazing experience overall. I would suggest taking the Free Press class or just being on the newspaper to any Lang student studying all genres of writing. The importance of paying attention to every detail that working for the Free Press teaches improved my writing process like nothing else could.
Ok, one more thing. I really love all of Lang’s professors and how they are all active writers; it was really inspiring as a student to look up and read my professors’ work.
5. What’s ahead for you?
At the moment, I am working on a manuscript of poetry for my graduate thesis. After I graduate from Otis this May, I will join my boyfriend, Hart Bothwell, who is a musician, on a year-long tour. I will be the tour photographer as well as hold poetry readings of my own along the way. In that time, I will also be looking to publish my current manuscript, as well as working with other artists to publish some small art/poetry books under my press.
6. What question would you ask yourself?
If I was questioning myself, I would ask: “Which deceased writer do you believe you are reincarnate?” To which I say, “Hopefully a John Ashbery-Jack Kerouac hybrid, even though Ashbury isn’t dead. The hybrid is funny because in a physical/social/everything-but-literary sense, I am nothing like my hybrid past/present selves. But here we are, co- and re-writing.”
October 10, 2019
Ann Snitow May 9, 1943-August 10, 2019 Ann Snitow, a founding faculty member of Lang College and the creator of the Gender Studies Program at the New School, passed away on August 10, 2019. She was a beloved member of the Literary Studies faculty. While indeed her books and essays are crucial texts in feminist studies and in the life of the mind, as Literary Studies colleagues our remembrances here are more personal, testaments not just to her work but to the power of her being.
March 12, 2021
Thanks to everyone who was able to attend our 2021 Literature Faculty Salon! Those who were unable to attend the live event can now watch a recording from home. Click here to watch the taping or copy-paste the link below into your browser. […]
1. What have you been doing since graduation?
The summer after I graduated Lang in 2014, my dad and I drove cross-country to my native Northern California and soon after I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my MFA in Poetry at Otis College of Art and Design. I’ve also spent the last two years missing New York more than I ever thought I thought I would, although my nostalgia for NYC has mostly been for food, mostly O Cafe’s pão de queijo.
2. You just published your first small press magazine. Tell us about it.
Yes, I also published my first magazine since I graduated Lang. It’s titled Outlawing, which began as my Lang thesis. It is a literary skateboard magazine about some of the great and under appreciated members of the respective San Francisco and New York skate scenes. I wrote Outlawing as a love letter to the overlooked peoples and cultures of any society.
During my last year at Lang I was entering a lot of contests to get funding for the magazine, but all was in vain. So after a friend helped me make a short video, about a year after graduation, I created a Kickstarter campaign and ended up raising over $1,700 to print the magazine. A friend of mine from Parsons, Tasia Prince, created the illustrations, and I designed, edited, wrote all the content and took the majority of photos for the magazine. I self-published Outlawing under my new press WARM MiLK PRESS
I just recently finished mailing out the first round of orders of Outlawing. While this project took some time and pain, the whole process was very rewarding and I can’t wait to make more books!
3. The magazine is dedicated to “Everyone Never Addressed in a Book.” Why?
I made that dedication because I have always been curious about the dedication pages in books, as they rarely come with explanations. I am also very envious of the adoration for the people on dedication pages, and sure I’m not alone. I think it must be very special to be a muse, but I assume most of us rarely embody this role via the front pages of someone’s book. I wrote the dedication to provide all of us who have never been the “dedicated to” the opportunity to be muse.
4. What was the most valuable aspect of studying writing at Lang for you?
I love Lang and The New School so much! I always tell anyone who will listen about Lang’s amazing program. I love the seminar aspect of the classes, studying writing by actually writing and the encouragement for students to express our own thoughts about books and writing instead of being told how to think about them. Being able to explore my own writing in seminars and workshop, as well as the amount of feedback I received from both classmates and professors, has tremendously helped my outlook and approach to writing.
Also, being a part of the New School Free Press was not only great for my writing, but an amazing experience overall. I would suggest taking the Free Press class or just being on the newspaper to any Lang student studying all genres of writing. The importance of paying attention to every detail that working for the Free Press teaches improved my writing process like nothing else could.
Ok, one more thing. I really love all of Lang’s professors and how they are all active writers; it was really inspiring as a student to look up and read my professors’ work.
5. What’s ahead for you?
At the moment, I am working on a manuscript of poetry for my graduate thesis. After I graduate from Otis this May, I will join my boyfriend, Hart Bothwell, who is a musician, on a year-long tour. I will be the tour photographer as well as hold poetry readings of my own along the way. In that time, I will also be looking to publish my current manuscript, as well as working with other artists to publish some small art/poetry books under my press.
6. What question would you ask yourself?
If I was questioning myself, I would ask: “Which deceased writer do you believe you are reincarnate?” To which I say, “Hopefully a John Ashbery-Jack Kerouac hybrid, even though Ashbury isn’t dead. The hybrid is funny because in a physical/social/everything-but-literary sense, I am nothing like my hybrid past/present selves. But here we are, co- and re-writing.”
