Managing Editor Lisa Ampleman: As we start a new academic year, we’re also starting a new era for the magazine! We mentioned in the spring that we were hiring for a new position, assistant managing editor, to work with social media and the website in particular. After a search process with a wealth of talented applicants, we’re pleased to introduce you to our new colleague, Bess Winter. You can read more about Bess’s life as a writer and teacher in her bio, but I’ll say also that her experience with effective social media campaigns and with website redesign for a literary magazine with user experience in mind impressed us. I first crossed paths with Bess, briefly, in my first few months as CR managing editor, in 2017, when she was finishing her doctorate in creative writing here at the University of Cincinnati. I heard great things about her and her partner, Woody (also a writer), and I admired her fabulous winter coats. So you could get to know her as well, I asked Bess a few questions about returning to the city, starting the job, and more:
Welcome back to Cincinnati! We published your fantastic story “The Stories You Write about Mimico” in our Issue 17.2. I love how it situates a particular neighborhood within Toronto’s history. I’d love to hear more about your relationship to Canada, where you grew up, and how that affects your life here in the US.
Thank you! I’m delighted to be back in Cincinnati—it’s truly my favorite American city. But, yes, Canada informs a lot of my writing and is still a big part of my life. I grew up in Toronto; my parents and many of my best friends still live there, so I’m back there often. My mom is an American. So, I consider myself a Canadian-American, as we were often living part-time in the US. It’s a weird identity. Canadians are essentially invisible here, but there are lots of us out there, and I can always tell when someone is Canadian—even actors on TV.
Because they’re next to each other and are similar in their diversity, we often lump Canada and America together—but the cultures couldn’t be more different. Materially, everything from foods to the color of mailboxes is different here. Politically, of course. But, also, the wild west American ethos that embraces extremes is the polar opposite of the tempered Canadian attitude I grew up around. When I first moved to the US full-time, I had trouble making friends and had no idea why. Turned out I wasn’t sharing enough—or, as a Canadian might say, oversharing. Americans aren’t afraid to look silly/ridiculous/ugly in front of people they hardly know, and it’s a form of bonding here. Now I just overshare and look like a fool willy-nilly in front of acquaintances. I’m still discovering little cultural differences all the time, especially being married to a Southerner.
While you were a graduate student at the University of Cincinnati in the early 2010s, you volunteered as a reader for the magazine. What has the experience been like to move from that position to the permanent staff? What are you looking forward to about the assistant managing editor role?
Hold your horses, Lisa. I’m not that old! I was at UC in the late 2010s!
Volunteering was an interesting learning experience because of the level of professionalism here at CR. I’d previously worked on Mid-American Review as an MFA student at Bowling Green State University, which was an extraordinary experience for me as a reader and writer. But CR operates like a pro magazine in many respects. It was as a volunteer here that I learned the ins-and-outs of copyediting, what a well-designed book looks like, etc. I still remember Nicola Mason showing us different margins and fonts and how much they affected the reading experience and feel of a book as object. To publish in CR means that your work is really treated with respect.
So, I knew those were the standards when I started here permanently. The difference, now, is I’m getting to bring that professionalism to shaping some of the ways we treat writers’ work online, in addition to in the print journal. I worked in marketing, social media, UX, and content strategy for several years before and after doing my PhD. At the time, those skills felt disconnected from my literary life. Now, that professionalism offers us a way to not only shape CR‘s online presence, but also to consider, and possibly challenge, how a literary magazine can and should use social media. How can we turn Instagram into an art space, for instance? How do we create an immersive literary experience for someone who’s flicking through stories? What is the “voice” of our blog? I’m excited to lead an exploration of all this with our editorial team.
What are some of your other interests outside the literary sphere?
Outside of the literary sphere, I’m a seller of vintage clothes. My business, Jeannette Custom Tailor, is mostly online (and is slow right now, because we’re getting ready to relocate back to Ohio from Illinois). Sourcing and buying vintage has been an incredible way to get to know some of the most compelling characters I’ve ever met. People—many of them in their ’90s—have welcomed me into their homes and told me their life stories, measured out in important outfits. Working with estates that had to be liquidated, I’ve strapped on masks and headlamps and waded through flooded basements full of leisure suits. On the customer side, I’ve met fascinating artists, makers, drag queens, writers, comic book artists, people who wanted to dress like their mother’s 1970s bridesmaids, etc. It’s more a labor of love than anything, but it has been fun.
