This past winter, I sat down with Sharmila Dey, Genevieve Erickson, and Henry Harms of Carnegiea Magazine, a literary and arts publication by and for Tucson teenagers. Harms, the magazine’s Chief Digital Officer, and Dey and Erickson, the Editors-in-Chief, spoke to me about where the idea for Carnegiea came from; their first event—a pop-up gallery featuring youth artists; their commitment to elevating the voices of young people in southern Arizona; and what advice they would give other teenagers looking to start a magazine. 

The trio are part of a masthead that includes fellow high school students Grayson Agrella, Gracie Hale, Nic Owen, Lulu Youngerman, and Isabella Carrión. Carnegiea, which currently publishes writing and art on its website, will release its first print issue in Summer 2019. 

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

On starting Carnegiea Magazine:

Sharmila Dey: Genevieve and I were watching an episode of the Great British Baking Show together over the summer and we were talking about how both of us had submitted poetry to online magazines. One of the concerns I had was there aren't that many platforms for high school students’ art and writing. There wasn’t one that we knew of in our school or in Tucson. 



Genevieve Erickson: I had the opportunity to go to a writing workshop in Ohio over the summer and it was interesting to see the different demographics because everyone there had a local literary magazine or at least a school literary magazine. It was just like, “Wow, why didn't I know that this was something that was available to people?” Tucson has so many underrepresented creative voices and there's so many perspectives because it's such a diverse community. We wanted to give a platform to those voices.

Dey: Part of it was that we not only wanted to include people who wanted a platform and didn’t have one, but people who were very talented and didn’t ever think to search for a platform. A lot of our friends are very artistically-oriented—really great writers and artists—and they were like, “Oh, publishing. I've never thought about that. But yeah, sure, I'll submit.”

Henry Harms: We’ve provided a voice to college students, middle school students, and high school students from low-income schools to really wealthy schools. And we can see the different issues that they address in their poetry and photography, and their paintings and art. 

On how they became interested in working on a literary and arts-based publication: 

Dey: I have been a poet and writer for many years and have wanted to publish pieces for a very long time. I wrote my first novel when I was in sixth grade and I wanted to get it published, but that didn’t go too well! So instead I turned to poetry, which is easier to turn out. I started submitting to lots of online magazines, but they were very hard to get into—and the ones that I did get accepted to were youth-oriented. I was like, “Oh, this is so cool and I wish I could be a bigger part of one, rather than just submitting, trying to also highlight voices.” 

Erickson: I, like Sharmila, have been passionate about writing for a while. I definitely haven't written a novel—I tend to stick to poetry and flash fiction, I don't have the patience to write a long thing. 

My family is really artistic in general, but we're also low-income and Hispanic. My dad's an incredible artist. He's so good at drawing and painting, but he never got the chance to pursue that because there's no money in it. My mom is very linguistic-oriented and she also is really passionate about reading and writing but again, she just never had the opportunity to do anything with that. Since I had the privilege of having such a good education growing up and all of these opportunities and great people around me who can help me accomplish things, I was just like, “You know what? Other people deserve an opportunity to speak out and have their voices heard.” I think that if I have the power to do that, I should get it done. 

Harms: In August of 2018, right before we ramped everything up, Sharmila and Genevieve came to me and were like, “Hey, you're a computer guy. Want to help us build the website?” I am a creative person and I've done a lot of digital art. I saw the intersection [of Carnegiea] with something I'm decent at, which is technology and website building. I saw that this was something I really wanted to be a part of, and then very quickly I became passionate about this project and making sure everything worked well so that people could get their work published and have a way to get it to us, have a way for us to look at it and choose which ones we think should be published. The logistics are kind of what drew me to it!

On Carnegiea's first event, a pop-up gallery for youth artists:

Dey: Our friend Isabella [Carrión], who's on our masthead, was one of the first people to say, “Hey, what if we did an event for young artists where we could display their work?” That totally took off and we became really invested in that. 

Erickson: We made an announcement in late October [2018], “If you're an artist, you might be able to sell your work through us, contact us, look at our website for more information.”

Dey: I’m pretty sure we had zero people contact us initially. 

Erickson: Yeah, no one did!

Dey: Because they're artists and they’re teenagers. 

Erickson: It wasn't until we found a venue, and created posters and put those up on social media, that people were like, “Oh, can I participate in this, too?” 

Dey: In the end, it was close to thirty artists. 

It was a big job finding the venue because we didn't have any money, so we had to find a venue that was right for what we wanted to do and then would be willing to let us have the event for free. The original plan didn't work out so we were panicking and my mom was like, “What about The Loft? I know that they do events there sometimes.” I called them and emailed them, and they were really generous and gave us the space for free and helped us put up tables and stuff. 

Harms: It was during a free showing of a movie that they have for youth on a Saturday morning and they offered us their whole patio space and their whole side patio space.

For the event, because we were providing a platform for artists to have their work sold, we took a small split so we could try to fundraise as well as pay the artists. We ended up getting the artists paid … I think it was $900 dollars. Obviously $900’s not [a ton] but for a bunch of kids—

Erickson: Many of them had never sold their art before.

Dey: I think one of the people made $150 from the event, which was really amazing. 

Harms: We were able to provide this platform for artists to not just be published but also to be sold and to see what you can do with art because that’s one of the big issues: “What do I do with this? Where do I go from here?” We provided a little experience [for young artists] to see, “Oh you have to market your art and find a platform for it and it’s possible.”

Dey: The other thing we did is we sold anthologies. We worked with our writing editors to narrow down our submissions to the best ones and then worked with the writers to edit them, revise them, make them the best they could be. Then I worked on formatting them and arranging them and we had a friend of ours do little doodle designs to put in the anthology and then we had our art editors work on a cover for it and we had to get that all scanned and organized, and then Gen took it to the print shop to make copies of it. And then we had a little folding and stapling session. It was a lot of work!

Erickson: I think the making of the anthologies really brought our masthead together. Everyone contributed and instead of just going out and getting submissions we had something tangible that we had done. So that was really cool, even though it was stressful negotiating things like prices and stuff for printing. 

On how Carnegiea reflects and uplifts the cultural identities and youth voices of Tucson and the greater Southwest:

Dey: Some of the pieces we have [published] so far have definitely been very Tucson-oriented. We had a piece about downtown Tucson, and one of our very first submissions was a poem by one of our close friends about South Tucson and her cultural experience growing up there. Then gun violence—there’s been a lot of different issues that are central to what it’s like to grow up in the Southwest but also to be a youth, which is a big priority of ours—not to just highlight our niche voice but also the youth voice in general. 

Harms: Yeah, absolutely. We have that desert theme to our website, to our art style, but that doesn’t stop what we end up posting and publishing, because a lot of the issues that the submissions touch, they’re issues we have locally but they’re not just local issues. Mental health has been a huge aspect that we touch on. I feel that people being able to talk about depression and their issues through the form of poetry and art and having a way to display it and show it off, I think that’s very powerful in both cultivating the Tucson and Southwestern culture as well as an American youth culture.  

Erickson: Touching a little bit more on mental illness, I think it’s really important that we have that in our magazine because a lot of kids from underrepresented groups in Tucson don’t feel comfortable expressing that as much. If we have this platform where we’re like, “Look, it’s not just something wrong with you, it can also be art and you can express yourself in the ways that you need and it can be appreciated by others,” I think that’s a really big thing. In general, I think the biggest way to experience the spirit of the Southwest is by talking to its people because of the experiences that you get, particularly from growing up in Tucson—how diverse not only the ecosystem is but also all the political opinions and all the people and the fact that we have so many refugees in our city as well. I think that taking all of those voices and combining them in our magazine is our way of appreciating the desert. 

Their advice for teens who want to start a literary magazine:

Erickson: Get yourself a good group of people to work with. 

Dey: And be prepared to work really hard. When we started this we were like, “Oh, it’ll be a fun little side project, we’ll just post something every now and then,” and then we were like, “Wait, we need a website to do that. Wait, we need to get submissions.” It was definitely a lot more work than we had anticipated, but it’s been the most rewarding experience that I’ve had in a long time. 

Harms: I’d say the single biggest thing is passion for it. If anyone would like to start a magazine or anything—not just a magazine but literally anything—if you have that passion for it and you have that drive for it, it makes it fun. I’ve spent many hours over many moons working on this project but I don’t see that as like, “Oh I spent so much time on this!” I see it as, “Look at this great product that I made that I can share with people and is helping the community around me.” It’s not just that I’m helping the community but that the community is helping itself through what we’ve created. 

Erickson: In a way I think the community is helping us, too. My little word of wisdom quip would be: don’t be afraid to reach out to adults. Although we’re all pretty fiercely independent and we like to do things and that’s why we started this magazine, you really do need support from people who know what they’re doing. Especially Henry’s mom—

Harms: And your mom! And [Sharmila’s] mom!

Erickson: Yeah, all of our parents have unique expertise, but particularly for the pop-up gallery I know that Henry’s mom helped us a lot with marketing. I didn’t know what to do with that or the legalities of having a disclaimer on our website or not being able to directly sell food without a permit. Knowing all those things is important and as a teenager you might not have them in your repertoire so don’t be afraid to ask other people about them. 

Dey: Also don’t be afraid to be open to new ideas. Especially with the magazine—incorporating everyone’s opinions on art and writing is going to be really valuable when we make a final product. 

Erickson: But seriously if anyone wanted to start a literary magazine or any artistic projects I would just tell them to do it. Because honestly, for most of my high school career, I’ve been trying to find a passion project. If you’re interested in something and you know that the work you’re going to put into it is fulfilling, just do it and it will really improve your life and broaden your horizons. 

Dey: Also, submit to Carnegiea! 

Erickson: Submit to Carnegiea! Take your creative projects and bring them to us.