…..At its conception, Saw Mill set out to be a digital extension of The Lumberyard. We hoped to use this space as a home for submissions we loved too much to let slip out our front door. Any editor can tell you how awful it feels to say no to a great piece, simply because there isn’t room or, maybe, the piece doesn’t quite fit the feel of an issue as a whole. Well, we at Typecast are the selfish sort, so we decided to find a way around that sort of disappointment by creating our own online journal.
…..With two hands and an alligator skin suitcase full of amazing work, we sat ourselves down and got to work figuring out how to build a space suitable for such wonderful poems and stories. We knew it had to be visually appealing, easy to use, and, most importantly, it had to have that Typecast je ne sais quoi. The first attempts were a little rough. You see, one Typecaster (who may or may not be yours truly) really wanted to embody the tactility of Lumberyard via the digital medium. That plan sort of fell apart after realizing it’s not such a good idea to send a laptop through a letterpress (well, at least not yet). After regrouping––and reassembling a macbook or two––we took another good, hard look at that pixilated screen and the concept became simple as butter and tasty like a Tuesday cupcake. We would let the medium be what it is. From there, the design and format came in a digitally-organic way; the journal would be published as a PDF that could be read easily on a screen, and the design would be, in a way, simple and computer-clean-like.
…..So enjoy this here journal. You’ll find work by Nate Pritts, Leora Fridman, Michael Shorb, Christine Kanownik, and Jon Gertz, whose very loveliness made the production of this publication even more exciting. Keep a look-out, as the next installment will arrive in the next few months and meanwhile we are working towards an app for Saw Mill that will include even more bonuses and freebies.
Thanks for reading and welcome to Saw Mill 01,
Brian Ensminger
Saw Mill Editor
