Spotlight on the Minor Bird with Abigail Kneuss & John Mamas

In our first student organization spotlight of 2021, we chat with co-Editors-in-Chief of the Minor Bird, Abigail Kneuss, Communications and Marketing ‘23 and John Mamas, Sustainability ‘23. The Minor Bird is Chatham’s undergraduate literary magazine, a longstanding staple on campus that features the creative work of Chatham students majoring in all fields. Read on to learn more about Abbi and John’s goals as Editors-in-Chief, what is on the horizon for the Minor Bird this spring, and how you can get involved—

Can you tell me a little bit about the Minor Bird and what you do on campus?

Abigail Kneuss: The Minor Bird is our undergraduate literary magazine. It's been running for 91 years. Its purpose is to bring writers, poets, and creatives together. We produce the literary magazine at the end of the year and everybody usually comes together to celebrate their work. It's a good opportunity for people to get their work in print for the first time and to learn more about the submission process and literary publishing.

John Mamas: It's not exclusive to people studying the humanities. It's open to all students. It brings together a lot of people that you wouldn't expect to be writers. It's so interesting to see what people majoring in neuroscience are writing.

What do the workshops look like?

AK: Typically the workshops go over best practices for editing, for example, how to review submissions, but it's also a space for writers to come together and have some time to work on their craft.

How often do you publish the Minor Bird and what type of work is featured?

JM: The Minor Bird is published every spring. We publish prose, poetry, art, and literary criticism. We cover a wide variety of genres. This year we're placing more of an emphasis on the art aspect. We want to create something that is brilliant because of the writing within it, but comes together as a whole with the art.

AK: Luckily we have 50 pages of art submissions this year. We're playing around with the idea of calling out for illustrations to pair with writing pieces, essentially prompting art. We're just going to have to see what kind of participation we can get on that.

What does the editorial process look like from start to finish?

JM: To start, a lot of work is put into getting submissions, especially during the times of COVID-19. It's really difficult to engage students on campus and that's been a major focus point for student organizations. A lot of our work was [focused on] getting enough pieces to make the kind of magazine that we would be really happy about. Now that our submission deadline has closed, we're basically putting together our pieces to send out to our Editorial Board and our Executive Board who will vote on pieces as a whole. [After pieces are selected], we have specific editors for prose, poetry, and art. They'll be looking over the pieces that we approve and suggesting edits. After that, we'll be looking at putting it together.  

AK After we get everything printed, there's usually a launch party. We're looking into getting a graduate of Chatham to come speak at this launch party, which is probably going to be virtual this year. It's a time for the creatives to come together, look at their work, and celebrate everything that they've done.

Abigail Kneuss

What are your responsibilities as editors of the Minor Bird?

John Mamas

JM: I think we're really lucky that we are running the Editor-in-Chief position together because we assumed the role of head of a student organization in a way that we didn't really understand until we were in the position. At the beginning, a lot of it was outreach and organizing meetings with our board and just figuring things out.

AK: It's a lot of leadership. It's a lot of overseeing our board, which includes 10 to 12 people. It's getting our schedules coordinated and seeing how we can incorporate everybody's ideas. We have an executive board that you have to apply to but we also have a separate board that anyone can be on. The executive board is all of our editors of all the genres. They all have shadows who are people who are looking to take over that position next year. Our editorial board consists of people who are interested in reading the submissions and voting on them. So they're really like our members.

JM: The executive board is within the editorial board, so we're all voting on pieces.

What are the benefits of submitting your work to the Minor Bird?

AK: The Simon Matela SOAR Awards for Emerging Writers are awarded in recognition of the best work by a writer who is being published in the Minor Bird for the first time. The journal will pick out one first-time publisher from each genre to receive the award. It has a cash prize as well as recognition within the journal. The prizes serve as a memorial for Simon Matela (class of 2020), a Minor Bird Executive Board member who passed away unexpectedly in 2019.

JM: Abbi and I both wanted to take on this role because we wanted to engage students in getting published. Both of us were published last year, and it was a really nice moment. We really want people to feel that satisfaction of seeing something they care about a lot out there for other people to read.

If a student is on the fence about submitting to or working on the Minor Bird, how would you recommend they learn more about it or explore it?

JM: Become a shadow for a member of the executive board. There are some people on our board this year that were shadows last year. They wanted to return this year because they had a better understanding of how the club functions and they felt more comfortable. For us, it was really helpful to have shadows who already knew how the club worked. People that are on the fence about it can sit in on meetings, sit in on the group chat, and be a part of what we're doing. 

AK: All submissions are judged anonymously. If you're very nervous about someone looking at your work, rest assured that all of us usually submit as well. It's all anonymous and it's judged by very open-minded people. Our goal is not to be a super elite magazine. It's to display people's work and celebrate it.

What are you most looking forward to in the Spring term?

JM: I'm really looking forward to exploring other formats for the physical copy of the Minor Bird this year. Throughout the last few years we've been doing a magazine style, but I've been thinking it would be interesting to do a booklet. It's gonna be challenging but also really exciting to look into the options for the actual creation of the magazine. 

AK: I'm looking forward to how all of our ideas are going to come together and to work on it with my best friend.

Interested in learning more about the Minor Bird? Contact Abigail Kneuss or John Mamas and follow the Minor Bird on Instagram: @minorbird_cu.