If you take a look behind the scenes at Descant, you’ll find a huge number of interesting and creative individuals. But who are all of these fantastic people? Wouldn’t you like to know more?
To celebrate our fast-approaching Fall issue, we would like you to get to know the creative team behind D150: Writers in Prison, set to launch this October. Today, we bring you some insight into Katie Franklin, Descant co-editor and one of the guest editors for this exciting issue. Read on to learn more about Katie…
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DESCANT: What brought you to Descant? What is your role at the magazine?
Katie: I first came across Descant at the Small Press Book fair. I had just graduated from university and like any English lit undergrad worth her Middlemarch, I wanted to work in publishing and magazines. I started talking to (then managing editor) Mary Newberry who encouraged me to apply for an internship. A few years later Karen Mulhallen asked me to become a co-editor, which was such an honour. It’s a really great team at Descant, I’m so happy to have been able to stay on all these years.
D: When you’re not helping out on new issues of Descant, how do you fill your time? Tell us a little about yourself.
K: I’ve just begun a PhD in Humanities at York University. My area of interest is in Weimar-era Berlin and its influence on the 1970s Glam Rock aesthetic in London. When I’m not reading books on Bowie, I also work part time as a public librarian.
D: Tell us about your creative life. Any current or forthcoming projects?
K: I’m currently working on a conference paper that I will be delivering at Oxford University on Christopher Isherwood’s A Single Man and Tom Ford’s film adaptation of the novel focusing on the relationship between fashion and literature.
D: Could you share with us a little about your creative process?
K: Does drinking copious amounts of coffee and catching up on The Wire count as a creative process?
D: What would be your ideal theme for a future issue of Descant?
K: I would love to see an issue on Dandies, Fops and Flâneurs.
D: What kind of submissions would you like to see more of coming in to the journal?
K: I would like to see more calligrams.
D: What are you reading/ watching/ listening to at the moment? Tell us about it.
K: I’m currently reading Lee Miller: A Life by Carolyn Burke. Miller is such an interesting persona who is at once ambiguous yet completely candid. She’s often remembered for being Man Ray’s muse, but only recently have scholars been paying attention to her contributions to the art and history of photography.
I’m also completely obsessed with The Kinks Choral Collection performed by Ray Davies and the Crouch End Festival Chorus. Unfortunately my father came over and discovered the album and stole it from me explaining, “you can’t possibly appreciate this like I would.”
D: Which blogs or websites are you faithful to these days? What’s the appeal?
K: I think I would be lost without Arts & Letters Daily. It’s a compendium of interesting articles, book reviews, and essays/opinions from around the globe. Oh, and the New York Magazine’s Sex Diaries section is a pretty great distraction (well, I’m not made of stone!)
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This look into our Prisons team will continue next week! I hope you’re as excited as I am…