We made the Kickstarter goal yesterday, making Lumn the first crowdfunded literary magazine, to my knowledge, anyway.  Someone else may be doing this/have done it without me realizing it, of course.  No one’s mentioned anything like that to me the whole time I’ve been talking the idea up, though.

So YEAH! It’s going to be a real, print journal, mailed out and hopefully read attentively and appreciatively.  Incredible.  Now I get to finalize things like glossy vs. matte cover stock and cream vs. true white paper.

I’m using the last couple days to try to push for a stretch goal or two.  My main priority is getting Nick some money to do woodcuts for the broadsides.  In reality, I’m going to find a way to pay him, one way or another, but it’ll be a lot easier if I can do that out of Kickstarter money rather than selling plasma or spending a weekend copyediting someone’s terrible website or something.  However I do it, though, those broadsides are going to be genuine works of art, with wonderful poems paired with gorgeous, custom woodcuts.

After the Kickstarter, prices on everything will go up — to wit:

• Single copy in print, $9 + single copy digital, $3: $12.  Or pledge for the SUPPORTER tier at $10!
• Both editions, $12 + letterpress bookmark of your choice (Dickinson, Stevens, or MacLeish), $7: $19.  Or pledge for the READER tier at $15!
• Both editions, $12 + letterpress broadside of your choice (Annie Finch or Jack Spicer), $25: $37. Or pledge for the ARCHIVIST tier at $25!
• Both editions, $12 + all three bookmarks, $21 + both broadsides, $50: $83.  Or pledge for the COLLECTOR tier at $50!

Yes, the $50 pledge tier really is that good of a deal.  I want to get dove|tail’s letterpress work out into people’s hands and their homes, so I’m giving it away cheap while I’m stirring up money for Lumn.  Take advantage of my enthusiasm.

Drive ends at 11:59 pm tomorrow (May 2) night!  Get in on it now!

The hugely upsetting events at the Boston marathon today have me thinking about generosity.  Among many other, direr things, but that’s the most positive and it’s what’s nearest in front of me in the rest of my life, so that’s what I’m trying to concentrate on. 

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Lumn is already about 40% funded for the first issue. The campaign has been up all of sixteen hours, and we’re 40% there! This is way beyond my biggest expectations — way, way, way beyond. A gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who’s pledged and shared the link so far.

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This semester, I’m staring down the barrel of four sections of composition at two different schools, with completely different student bodies, different goals and standards for their comp programs, different sets of meetings and deadlines and policies — Lumn is already taking a soteriological position in my life. 

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The unexpected best part of running a magazine: my inbox is now full of cheerful emails, pretty much all the time.  People sending me poems, promising to send me poems, wishing me well, offering useful advice, offering to get their friends to send me poems, responding to acceptances, responding positively to revisions… and so on.

Also cheerful: I have Kickstarter news!  I’m going to be doing broadsides of two spectacular poems to use as giveaways.

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For weeks, I’ve been trying to find some lawyery person — even just a law student — to sit down and walk me through what I need to do to make Lumn real enough to have a bank account. 

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For years, magazines’ anonymizing editorial “we” has been one of my pet peeves.

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Lumn should at least look like it’s got its act together in not too much longer.

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