Hello, Friend!
Welcome to Spoke! Spoke is the brainchild of a couple of friends in
Chicago, Illinois, (the magnificent and incredibly attractive Annette and
Elizabeth) who were looking to do something productive with their creative
energies. Stifled by the tedium of post-college full-time work and the academia
of grad school, these two friends realized that they needed a release. So, over
the course of some casual dinners (probably burritos) they began to put their
heads together to create a literary magazine as, well, to be honest, a total
vanity project. Unfortunately, the prospect of starting such a thing seemed too
daunting for these two friends and they didn’t know quite where to begin. Each
burrito dinner would begin with enthusiasm, but by the time they got to the last
scrap of tortilla their energy would be at a low from discussing the logistics
of the venture. How would they put these magazines together? What would they do
with them? What would they write about? They had no idea. And so the idea
stalled.
Then! After one magical night of allergy medicine hallucinations
(thanks, Zyrtec D!) Annette had visions of an all inclusive quarterly mailer.
Not just a magazine, but a collection of items to mail out. Pieces of
literature. And music. Yes, music. And photography. And graphic arts. And oh my
God, food! Yes, even food! Recipes! But what about fun crafty things? Pins? Of
course. Magnets? A given! Paper dolls? ABSOLUTELY! And then all these things
would be wrapped up in neat little packages and sent to the doorsteps of friends
and family and friends of family and friends of friends, and perhaps someday
even strangers! Suddenly this all became a lot more manageable in Annette's
mind. A mailer. A quarterly mailer. One for every season. "This is great," she
thought.
Annette didn't sleep that night.
And so they hit the ground running, deciding to do the first quarterly
theme on the one thing these two Chicagoans friends knew best: MICHIGAN. (Trust
us, 3 out of 5 people in Chicago are from Michigan. It's a total fact.)
Compiling works from friends, they set out to put together a great mailer filled
with creative expression and emotion and a whole bunch of other silly things
mixed in as well. And they did. And they continue to do so. Now they’ve
brought on tremendous friend and artist Kristen as a third editor and things are
booming!
And now the business—if you'd like to join the Spoke mailing
list (for information on web updates, ordering mailers, upcoming mailer themes,
and any and all upcoming Spoke [and friends of Spoke] events) please send an
e-mail to
mailinglist@spokeisneat.org. For information on
submissions (like, if you want to submit something for an upcoming issue), you
can email at us
submissions@spokeisneat.org. For any and all other
inquiries slash the heaping on of praise, you can contact us at
questions@spokeisneat.org.
Snuggles,
Annette, Liz, and Kristen