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Updated 9/20/2022

Mount Island

  • V

    VT

Institution/Business Type: Literary Magazine

Mount Island is a literary magazine and small press dedicated to creating space for rural LGBTQ+ and POC voices to be heard on their own terms and find solidarity in community. Mount Island is a magazine by us, of us, and for anybody who wants to see rural America for all it really is.

What we’re looking for

Prose and poems that buck the standard. Any genre, whether traditional or invented. Art that liberates vision. Any medium, whatever can be displayed digitally. Interviews, reviews, and articles that follow passion and further connection.

Why it gotta be rural/LGBTQ+/POC?

With our deepening political divides and the rise of emboldened hate groups across the US, cultural critics have pointed the finger at rural America. Even so, the mainstream American imagination believes in a false countryside—one too white, conservative, or just plain quiet for any queer or Black or brown person to feel at home. But we are out here, holding down the countryside. Even as we live in the face of constant erasure, we live creatively, infectiously.

The rural-urban divide widens while America overlooks rural life’s great diversity. Rural America’s queerness and colorfulness are cultural treasures, keys to deep wonder and freedom. The people who make it so should be proud, should say their truths loud and together. So we’re creating space for these voices to be heard on their own terms and find solidarity in community. Mount Island is a magazine by us, of us, and for anybody who wants to see rural America for all it really is.

For more information on our mission as an arts organization, check out:

Find Me

Desmond Peeples (Any)
Job Title: Editor in Chief
Address:
Underhill, VT 05489

Social Media:

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Literary Magazine

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

2014

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Literary Magazine

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

2014

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Literary Arts - Publishing

Additional Disciplines:

  • Media - Digital

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts Criticism / Journalism
  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Creation of a Work of Art (Including Commissions)
  • Publishing
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Community Arts
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 9

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • General Public
  • LGBTQ Populations
  • Native American Tribes

Geographic Reach:

  • International

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Major Jackson

Date: 12/2019-05/2020

Major Jackson served as the inaugural judge of our Lucy Terry Prince Prize for rural poets of color.

GennaRose Nethercott

Date: 10/2019-10/2019

GennaRose Nethercott served on the judges panel at our 2019 launch party, Touché! A Tournament of Words.

Lilly Evelet

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Lilly E. Manycolors (Lilly Evelet) contributed cover and interior art for our October 2019 issue.

May Day Studio

Montpelier, VT's May Day Studio printed our limited edition letterpress broadsides of poetry by Tyler Orion.