It just requires more work. I’m really excited about it and I’m excited to see what I learn. There has to be a learning curve, in some ways. I’m curious to see what I think is a certainty going into the launch of this literary site and then what I realize is ‘oh no.’ That’s part of the reason that I like building and creating things at BuzzFeed. It was the same thing with launching the LGBT vertical two and a half years ago. You have to eat your words at several points along the way.

 

SA: Do you think what you’re doing is unprecedented, or that you are a great leap forward in terms of the life of the little magazine online?

 

SJ: I think everyone thinks when they’re doing something new it’s unprecedented. That’s what I love about the literary magazine, right? If there is any kind of cultural object that most consistently has appeared over the course of human history as a result of some people having drinks, it’s the literary magazine. It’s almost always birthed out of peoples’ lives and their conversations, their friendships. I think that’s great. I’m excited to have the opportunity to be a part of this and to get this insanely amazing platform. I’ve been thinking lately about my life before I came out of the closet and I’ve been thinking about myself, self with a capital S as a text. When you’re in the closet, I spent the first 18 years of my life, self-censoring or really erasing the self, the text that I am. To now be at this point in my life, 29 years old, and given an opportunity to not only tell my story but to help other people do the same and to introduce readers and writers to each other after literally years and years and years of erasing the most essential parts of myself is just amazing. It’s also scary.

 

SA: I have a question about issues. Are you going to be publishing issues, like this is Issue 1? Or is it going to be a continuous roll out? And what is the role of the constraint or the package of the issue in the digital space for the magazine you’re going to create?