April 2024

Terrain.org

The AWP Small Press Publisher Award is an annual prize for nonprofit presses and literary journals that recognizes the important role such organizations play in publishing creative works and introducing new authors to the reading public. AWP reached out to Simmons Buntin, the editor in chief of the 2024 winning literary journal, Terrain.org, to ask about the journal and what it means to win this prize.

Tell us about Terrain.org and its mission.

With a focus on place, climate, and justice, Terrain.org is an independent magazine first published in 1998. As the world’s first place-based online literary journal, we were founded on a vision of marrying poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction with articles and community case studies. The works Terrain.org publishes on a rolling schedule merge literary and graphic art with science and activism in a beautiful, interactive design. The journal, whose editors and editorial board all serve on a volunteer basis, has always been advertisement-free and does not charge to access our content, nor charge to submit (except contests). Our work has been awarded the John Burroughs Nature Essay Award and been included in the The Pushcart Prize, The Best American Essays, The Best American Poetry, Best of the Net, Verse Daily, and numerous award-winning books and anthologies.

What kinds of pieces do you look for to publish in your journal?

If you can dream it, you can do it. No, wait: if you build it, they will come . . . All of which is to say, we look for all kinds of literary work, editorials, artwork, design, and everything in between. As an online journal, we are not just interested in the written word, but also in audio, video, interactive features, image galleries, and more, though the submission doesn’t have to incorporate multimedia to be a great fit. What’s essential for us is that it speaks to place, climate, and/or social or environmental justice, even if only remotely. Ultimately, we seek surprise, delight, truth, hope, beauty. You know, the small things . . .

What do you want readers to know about your publication?

That we are far more than a “nature magazine,” though the natural and built environment are at the heart of who we are, just as they are at the heart of who all of us are. By that I mean, Terrain.org publishes a broad mix of excellent writing, artwork, and multimedia about the human experience in place. We all exist in place (and if we don’t, that’s fascinating too, yes?).

What does winning the Small Press Publisher Award mean to you?

The AWP Small Press Publisher Award is truly an honor and a delight—recognition that places us among the best literary journals out there. We are humbled. More than that, it is also critical for our continued success, for independent magazines especially benefit from this kind of award—with its essential monetary prize and its free booth for next year’s AWP bookfair. Those things matter, especially for a small-budget, paying market like us. So: thank you, from the bottom of our digital (and actual) hearts.

What are you looking forward to most at #AWP25?

For Terrain.org, the AWP Conference & Bookfair is fundamentally about community. Yes, we get to share our good work and words with readers and writers who don’t know us. That’s important. But what nourishes us at this wonderful event as a virtual organization—what particularly nourishes me as editor in chief—is connecting with fellow editors and contributors in the bookfair, at our annual off-site reading, and in and around the convention center. AWP is where our community connects in person, and it sustains us.

Also, one of our editorial board members lives in Southern California and has a skiff he’s promised to scoot us around the coast on prior to the conference. That’s pretty exciting, too. Place matters, so thanks for choosing Los Angeles for next year.