Designing & developing a digital poetry magazine for 18 years
Responsibilities:
- Web Development
- Stakeholder Management
- Static Sites (Middleman)
- Web Design
- Typography
- Editing
- Collaboration
- Poetry
- Publishing
- Literary Magazine
- Writing
Outcomes:
A literary journal focused on typography and has been running for 18+ years.
19 issues of type-focused poetry
As the founder, editor, developer, and designer of a highly-regarded poetry journal, I’ve been leading its publication for over 15 years. The journal’s website is maintained using a combination of JavaScript, CSS, Ruby, and the Middleman static site generator. Middleman was chosen for its ability to build multiple indices at once.
All content is accessible and semantic on all screen sizes. Sink Review was founded on the ideal of close collaboration between artists, writers, and technologists. As such it has a typography-first layout that places the focus on the words above design. Further, it features custom HTML and layouts tailored specifically to present the poems in their intended format, no matter how difficult the layout. Often, I work closely with authors to achieve this goal.
This bespoke attention has allowed us to succeed at a variety of interesting projects, such as poems randomized with javascript and translations presented alongside their source text.
Sink Review has been running for nearly 2 decades, and while it’s on hiatus for now I hope to find a new editorial team to work with on its next inception. If so inclined can find my poem, “Nostrum”, online here.