fiction and creative nonfiction at the University of Pennsylvania and founder (with her daughter, Lauren) of “Cleaver,” an award-winning online literary and book review magazine.
by Len Lear
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote
many centuries ago that “What is evident to the wise is not evident to all.”
One thing that is definitely evident to the wise is that Karen Rile is one of
Philadelphia’s brightest literary lights. Karen grew up in West Mt Airy (Pelham
Road, and then Upsal Street) but has lived with her husband in Chestnut Hill
since 1987.
Karen, who teaches fiction and creative nonfiction at the
University of Pennsylvania, is the author of “Winter Music,”
a novel set in Philadelphia, and numerous works of fiction and creative
nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in at least seven literary magazines and
has been listed among “The Best American Short Stories.”
Rile has written articles and book reviews for countless
publications including The New York Times, but possibly her most impressive
literary accomplishment is Cleaver Magazine, of which she is founding editor. Cleaver is an internationally recognized,
award-winning online literary and book review magazine that was created almost
eight years ago in Chestnut Hill.
“Ever since
she was little, my oldest daughter, Lauren, and I had talked about starting a
literary magazine,” Rile told us in an interview last week. “My daughter was a
published poet and had served as an editor at American Poetry Review while she
was still in high school. We also had a fair amount of design experience. But
we had hesitated because we understood the difficulties and expense of
distributing a print journal. Then, in late 2012 we realized that we had the
web design skills to create a digital magazine, so we decided to go for it.”
The Riles’
first full-length issue came out in March, 2013. In the beginning, “Cleaver”
was just the Riles, but now it has a large staff of editors working on all
phases of publication, from reading through submissions in their digital “slush
pile” to working directly with writers on developmental edits, copyediting,
proofreading, etc.
(Lauren’s
involvement with the magazine has been significantly reduced because she runs
her own small arts organization, Tangle Movement Arts, an aerial theater
company — which has been featured in the Local — in addition to a full-time job
and being a parent to two small children.)
Currently, Rile
is preparing issue No. 30, which will be seen at the end of June.
“From the
beginning,” she said, “Cleaver took off very quickly, both in scope and
popularity —much faster than I anticipated — in part because, from the
beginning, we offered excellent literary content in a clean, unpretentious,
accessible format. Part of our mission is to promote the work of new and
emerging writers and artists of all ages alongside that of established voices.”
“Cleaver,” by
the way, seems like a strange name for a literary magazine. Lauren came up with
the name when she was in middle school. To “cleave” is both to stick tight and
to fall away. A cleaver is the most broad-edged and brutally efficient kitchen
knife, designed to be swung like a hammer for the most effective channel of
force. “Cleave” also means to come together with strong attachment. “We love
the name because it brings together dissonance and harmony,” said Karen, “and
it’s visual and quirky. People remember it.”
Unlike many
magazines (it is no secret that many hard-copy print magazines and newspapers
are on life support), Cleaver does not focus on specific issues or topics but
rather literary genres. They publish original works of fiction, “flash” (very
short prose pieces), poetry, visual narrative, creative nonfiction and art in
their literary quarterly.
They also
offer weekly content including book reviews, author interviews, craft essays
(that is, essays about the craft of writing), comix and even an advice column,
“Ask June Cleaver.” (“June” is the pseudonym of a Harvard-educated lawyer who
lives in Chestnut Hill.) And readers never pay to access Cleaver’s content.
“When we
started the magazine,” said Rile, “our goal was that it be self-supporting
(meaning, I would not need to spend my own money on production and maintenance
costs) by year 10. We hit that goal around year six, thanks to support from the
Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Kelly Writers House and donors.
“Cleaver is
unusual if not unique as a self-supporting magazine in terms of what it is able
to produce on a small budget. If you look at our masthead, you will see a staff
of about 30 volunteer editors and our five current hard-working summer interns.
I serve as the chief fiction editor. Our creative nonfiction editor, Lise
Funderburg, of West Mt. Airy, is my colleague in the Creative Writing Program
at the University of Pennsylvania. Our art editor, Raymond Rorke, of West
Philadelphia, is the graphic designer at the Clay Studio and an award-winning
ceramic artist. Our visual narrative editor, Emily Steinberg of Elkins Park, is
a professor at Penn State … Having an unpaid but dedicated in-house web
editor (i.e., me!) makes us much lighter on our feet than if we had to pay a
webmaster and wait for them to respond.”
According to Rile,
“If you had to describe our style in three words it would be ‘quirky, eclectic
and specific.’ Specificity is perhaps the most important of the three. We
believe that language matters.”
For more
information, visit www.cleavermagazine.com. You can reach Len Lear at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com
