Mensah DeMary / "Baldwin is an archetype for Specter magazine: minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work"

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a fan of beautifully written literature that speaks from a space of obscurity and oddity. My curiosity was piqued when I heard about Specter Literary Magazine through the Twitter grapevine. The planning was transparent; editor Mensah DeMary regularly tweeted about the editing process, the great submissions he'd received, and changes to the website platform. Anticipation mounted. Issue Zero launched on my birthday, August 1st, and I could not have received a better gift. A magazine built around "contemporary and experimental literature illuminating the modern experience", the Issue Zero features a range of narratives: a transgender man's coming of age story anchored to a decidedly Southern Gothic style; a brave piece on war heros, domestic violence, and revenge; and a short tale of irreverence in Mrs. Gregory's class.

I spoke with DeMary about the publication and where it is headed next. He discusses his upbringing, James Baldwin as the archetype for Specter -- "minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work," the birth of the magazine through Twitter, and Junot Diaz's creation of a new language in The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.


Liberatormag: How did Specter get started?

MD: My wife Athena Dixon-DeMary and I talked about starting a literary magazine for a few years. It never seemed like the right time; for various reasons, things just got in the way--important things, like marriage for example. We came up with the framework for Specter sometime in 2010; the whole "modern experience" theme, the type of writers we wanted to publish, etc. I hate to make it sound so "off-the-cuff," but I came home from work one day this past June, feeling--I don't know--motivated, I suppose, to finally get the magazine started. Athena and I talked it over and we haven't looked back since.

Liberatormag: Why Specter? Why now? The internet is full of web-based publications. What sets it apart?

MD: The word "specter," of course, is a kind of ghost--typically of a malevolent nature. We wanted some representation of people within our age group, give or take a decade -- our generation, in short. We're not evil, of course -- we're not looking to haunt anyone (sort of). But as young, educated black people, we do feel invisible at times or, maybe, we're seen as oddities, given we don't fit any typical mold. Nor should we. And we extend that sense of invisibility -- indeed, that sense of powerlessness -- to other groups, every group: Asians, Latinos, atheists, queers, and so on. Specter has no political or social agenda beyond giving talented writers -- those perhaps invisible to other publications--the chance to showcase their work and, more importantly, to find, hopefully, a literary home. To find some commonality, some kinship, which is vital to the creative process -- as well as one's sanity.

Now, whether or not this makes us distinct from other magazines--I don't know. I like to say Specter is different than other magazines because we--Athena and I--are different. Not better. Not smarter or more knowledgeable. Just different. Different and passionate about literature. Indeed, there are plenty of online magazines. it seems like new ones pop up every day. All we can do as editors and founders of Specter is be ourselves.

Liberatormag: The "Ghost Blog" feels like a mashup of sex advice, literary critique, and political commentary. It's entertaining to say the least. I laugh nervously quite often as I read. How would you describe the "Ghost Blog"? Why have you not limited the topics to just literature?

MD: Ghost+Blog ... I'm laughing as I type this…well, it's an entity onto itself. Yes, it is the official blog of Specter, but we do treat it like a separate venture. It's why we brought on Ashley Ford to be our blog editor. Given our responsibilities to the magazine, Athena and I believed we needed someone else to oversee the blog--to give it the full attention it deserves. Otherwise, Ghost+Blog would have nothing but posts from the two of us, ranting and raving about the life of lit mag editors.

To put it another way, Ghost+Blog and Specter are joined together, but serve different purposes which, we hope, funnel readers and writers into one another.

Ghost+Blog is, by its nature, a literary blog -- maybe in the vein of HTMLGIANT or We Who Are About To Die or PANK Magazine's blog (I write for the latter) -- but again, different from the aforementioned outfits because we're different. J. Bradley's sex advice column is -- well -- it can be a little explicit, but remember: his responses to the questions are in the form of flash fiction. And yes, there are political and social undertones to some of the other columns, but all of them -- every one of them -- approach topics through the spectrum of literature. That was our only prerequisite when we sent out a call for contributors back in early July: so long as it's literary-based, they have free reign with respect to their weekly posts.

Trust me, we're just as surprised as you; the type of content is not what we envisioned and, frankly, we're thrilled.

That aside, I'd like to add the following. Between the blog and our various social profiles, Specter can be perceived as a bit silly ... light-hearted, perhaps ... and we own that. We don't shy away from our silliness. What I want to reiterate, however, is our commitment to literature, to the arts in general, and to community-building. We're all very different from one another, but we're all true believers. Creativity is vital to all our lives. And we take it seriously.

Liberatormag: The Specter family is full of some interesting characters -- from the "explicitly queer black Daria-but with better clothes" to "editor, teacher, and highly-skilled beard trimmer". How did you go about building this literary family? Are you looking forward to adopting any new members?

MD: Specter's crew--and its formation--is the biggest and most pleasant surprise to me. Some of them (J. Bradley, Rion Scott, Ashley Ford) I've known through my PANK affiliation. Meanwhile, others came into our fold via Ashley Ford's connection to ChickLitZ. From there, it snowballed. Beyond the people I named, everyone else came to us (or we to them) through Twitter.

Noriko Nakada and William Henderson are nonfiction writers who were published by Hippocampus Magazine, who also published me--but none of us talked to each other before Specter; hell, we didn't know of each other's existence, most likely. I sent out a tweet looking for a lit blogger; Brett Jenkins came along and we chatted back and forth for an hour; I brought her on after I read her blog.

Kima Jones and I have had frequent conversations on Twitter over the past year, but through her Twitter campaign -- most notably, the Friday Favorites that she kicks off (favorite novels, favorite first lines, etc) -- I met and connected with other individuals (that includes you, Kameelah). Long story short, the Specter crew just ballooned in such a short time. And it makes me smile at times to see people who never talked to each other before -- people who maybe would've never thought they had commonality among one another -- talk and chat and enjoy each other's company. Just from a lit mag, of all things.

New members? Well, I'll put it like this: my role as editor-in-chief is to look at the big picture, among other things. I see Specter as a community -- a collective, really -- but one that is inclusive and, I hope, inviting to others. All of that is to say yes, I'm looking forward to new members.

Liberatormag: Specter launched Issue Zero on August 1st and clearly all the submissions were excellent, but we all have favorites. What were some of your favorites? Don't be shy.

MD: I do have favorites, and I don't think it'd be hard to find them--but I'd rather not say. Issue Zero, in whole, is a fantastic publication--one we hope to duplicate and improve upon over time.

What can I say? I'm shy.

Liberatormag: What's one text you constantly return to? I know I love anything by Harryette Mullen and Octavia Butler. I constantly return to the last few pages of Toni Morrison's Beloved as well.

MD: James Baldwin's essay collection, The Price of the Ticket. I've had it for a decade now, give or take, and I pick it up as if it's a holy text--reading whole essays or just a few passages. Maybe, subconsciously, Baldwin is an archetype for Specter: minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work. Something about Baldwin's nonfiction, more so than his stories and novels, replenishes me when I need it. Any fan of Baldwin should own The Price of the Ticket. It's worth it.

Liberatormag: I am a sucker for the cleverly crafted sentences. I get excited when writers indulge their alliterative urges or like Paul Beatty, pack a sentence with highly referential descriptions. Plot matters. Characters matter, of course; however, I can get lost in one beautiful sentence. As a writer and a reader, what aspect of the written word excites you the most? Why?

MD: As a writer and reader, it's the conflation of language and story. Junot Diaz often referred to the construction of ... Oscar Wao as "finding a new language." The novel was, to me, fresh -- literally and colloquially -- in its plot and characters, but also in its language, its mixture of Spanish words, Dominican history, usage of Marvel Comics and Watchmen. I don't know if I have a particular taste in literature; I'm sure I do, but I can't define it. Let's say -- for my work and the work by others -- I am moved by language andI am moved by story or, more to the point, the story of a charismatic character, independent of his/her actual "likability."

Liberatormag: Issue 1 launches on September 5th. Anything new we should expect with this issue?

MD: Well we do have some surprises in store for Issue One -- we hope to announce them in the coming days. Overall, the issue is almost double the size of Issue Zero, which was meant to be a "preview issue." We'll have some notable names from the lit scene as well as newcomers. Expect to see a more complex, denser publication in Issue One. Not necessarily harder to read, for we think anyone can enjoy the work we selected. But Athena and I are writers at heart -- and we're firm believers in the importance of literature issuing a challenge to the reader, to make the reader work. Expect to work.

Liberatormag: There is some Twitter murmur about photography submissions. As a literary magazine, why are you moving toward photography submissions?

MD: Issue Zero launched with a site design which leaned heavily toward photography. We've since scaled that down in our current iteration, but yes--we now accept art and photography submissions. How we'll display them on the site is still up for debate, more from a technical standpoint than anything else. As to why--well, we love photography and art. The visual can tell a story much like literature--in many ways, better. But Specter is a literary magazine, first and foremost. The art selections will compliment the literature, but the words come first.

Liberatormag: Besides being the brainchild behind Specter, what other projects are you working on?

MD: Maybe I'm being coy, but I don't think of myself as Specter's brainchild. If we're a band, I'm the frontman. Not completely by choice, but of the two, Athena is much quieter and more comfortable being behind the scenes than me.

Moving forward, we'd like to expand Specter into a larger project -- a brand, perhaps. We're in the very early stages of creating a micro-press; essentially, a small publishing press which will do limited runs of fiction, nonfiction and poetry (we are Not open for manuscript submissions lol ... ease up, writers). We're also formulating ways to do cross-promotion with other people/groups. "Cross-promotion" is a weak term -- or somewhat inaccurate.

We want to build something profitable because -- well -- we hate our jobs and would prefer to focus on our creative endeavors full time. But I mentioned earlier the idea of community, of a Specter collective. Because of Specter and my dealings with other organizations, as well as my heavy Twitter usage, I see a lot of writers, photographers, artists in general attempting to "make it" on their own. it's hard to do these days when it seems like everyone wants to be a writer, editor, painter, whatever. It's hard to break through, to network and foster working relationships, on one's own.

My question is: does that have to be the case? Sure, we can do our individual thing -- my writing, your photography, for example -- but I'm thinking of a collective which pools its resources. Not just money, if money is involved at all. More importantly, information and support. A lot of artists feel alone out there; maybe that comes with the job. But some of that loneliness comes from being a black writer, a queer writer, a transgendered painter, a biracial photographer: exclusion masked, and dealt with, as loneliness. if there is a larger project, then killing that sense of exclusion in art -- in all forms -- is the end goal. How we get there? We'll see.

Liberatormag: We can't leave this interview without learning a bit more about Mensah DeMary. Tell us a bit about yourself.

MD: I'm the third of four children; I have two older brothers & and a younger sister. We grew up in southern New Jersey, about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, and our home was lively. My parents are medical professionals and they provided safe, fulfilling lives for us. Though their marriage didn't last, they did the very best for us -- for me -- and I don't think any of us can complain.

My writing life, if you will, had a slow start. I wrote two or three stories as a child, around age six or seven, but I stopped for nearly a decade. In between that time, I played sports, played the trumpet and chased girls. I started writing again at age 17; I felt it cathartic after a breakup with my high school sweetheart. Plus, it was a transitional time: college loomed, my teens were coming to an end. So I fell in love with writing again, or for the first time, and focused on poetry.

After I dropped out of college in 2000, I was a vagabond of sorts: I moved to Washington, DC for two years, came back to NJ for six months, then moved to GA (where my mother and sister still reside) for four years. To be honest, there were some catalysts predicating the wanderlust -- all of them painful -- so I don't want it perceived as though I was merely lost. I was lost but in search of something. What? I don't know. I haven't found it. I just assume its internal, now.

I guess I'm a self-taught writer, though that feels inaccurate. Books taught me. Other writers taught me. Life taught me more than I wanted to learn. But I'm not an English major or a holder of an MFA; hell, I still need to get my BA (if I go back to school at all). I like to read and I like to write. Once I realized these two tasks go hand-in-hand -- and it took a long time to learn -- I felt comfortable enough to figure out craft as I went along. Today, I write prose: fiction and personal essay/memoir. One day, I'll write a book -- maybe two -- but I'm trying not to rush myself. It's hard, though. As a writer, spend enough time on Twitter and Facebook and you'll feel inadequate in a hurry. Another one of those internal struggles.

Liberatormag: And the name? Some people know you as Mensah and others know you as Thomas.

MD: I only brought it up because it's been mentioned to me a number of times. Well, asked really -- why did I change it, what's the point, etc. I tried to explain it in a PANK blog post I wrote (entitled "mensah demary"), but it evolved into a rant of sorts on race and agency, the ability to rename oneself. Or maybe I felt defensive about it. I don't know.

Anyway, it wasn't a legal change: I'm still Thomas DeMary. "mensah" isn't a pseudonym, per se ... okay, it is, but I'm not trying to hide or protect anything. If that were the case, I wouldn't have used my real surname. No, it's a name I love. I love the sound of it; it's meaning -- third born son -- is accurate; and it does free me up to write whatever I want, but not so much as to be careless with my words.

I feel free, to put it another way, to define myself. There is a bit of rigidity in one's given name; it's a type of marker set within one's family. It sets you apart from other family members, but I feel it also cages you into your familial role: for me, that would be the introvert, the shy child who preferred to be alone. I can't change how my family views me and -- to be frank -- I'm have no desire to try. But renaming myself in the literary world gives me the space to further evolve, to try different personas, and to do it all with a shrug, as if to say, "Take it or leave it." I can't do that to my family. I tried. It doesn't work.

All of that said, I'm still a member of my family, hence my surname. I could've changed it too, but I'm not ashamed of my family and I didn't want the change viewed as a slight toward them.

...or maybe I make too much of a name. Sue me.