I went to New York on a half-whim. I had done, what they call in Italian, a giro, a spin, a travel, a traipse around the world. In the summer prior, I had finished writing a book I was really proud of and had pitched to dozens of magazines about a number of articles around food and food journalism.
Nobody answered me! I found this a great injustice. I am not a horrible writer and am a great researcher. Why aren’t you responding to my emails?
I thought New York would be a better place than anywhere in the world to network with inclinations and careers in literature. There’s 200 events a week targeted towards this group - a freebie!
I went to a particularly stand out one where a group of editors (mostly of print and online magazines) pretty much owned up to it and admitted that due to the onslaught of pitches, they often do not read them, and this is often tied to the exposure of the name.
Well, that’s not fair, I thought. But I supposed this was how the game was played. They encouraged the attendees to start their own magazines if they were frustrated with this scene.
I forced myself towards a number of the editors and asked to meet for coffee. They all encouraged starting my own literary magazine.
It really would be a wonderful world if I didn’t pump out a pitch call with ulterior motives as cynical and self-serving. A secondary reason is that I am a big fan of New Journalism and I wanted to see more voices like that, but I couldn’t possibly know the type of writers who would volunteer, if they would also be appreciators, whatever.
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Very happily, a group of good, creative and relaxed people volunteered their services. A great bunch stuck around. A few had articles drop for reasons beyond their control.
I’m very happy with the turnout and very pleased to introduce the first issue of Kitchen Software, and I hope it will be the first of many.
Adriana
