Profile Piece: Halle Merrick and Haunted Words Press
Halle Merrick greets me tucked in the corner of her office at Falmouth University, already so much more professional than me, who has just rolled out of bed and opened my computer. They’ve seen me in a worse state before, though — Halle and I did our undergraduate together. I’m meeting with her today to talk about the literary magazine she started. Haunted Words Press is a micropress which publishes ‘tales of the Gothic, the spooky and the magical, for young adults and middle grade.’ From a five-minute class exercise during our undergrad to procrastinating their dissertation, Halle tells me how they started the magazine, and why.
‘It started in April of 2022. I set up on Twitter, didn’t expect it to really go anywhere, printed out some posters, some leaflets saying submissions were open. Got a few submissions, a few international ones, and made Issue One!’ They explain that their reason for starting the press was to find specialised Gothic, magical and queer writing that centred a middle grade audience. ‘I wanted there to be a space where people could publish works that don't have to be novels or full length pieces.’
Haunted Words prides itself on core values like being free to read and free to submit, which Halle intends on sticking to. ‘A lot of literary magazines will charge a fee for submitting, which is fine, but you shouldn’t have to pay to submit your work, and I don’t think you should have to pay to be able to read people’s work.’ As a queer writer, Halle wants to create a safe space for other queer writers. They really take an interest in helping young people get published, especially as they think young authors know the audience for Haunted Words best. She makes a point of saying she doesn’t believe first-time submitters are less skilled than experienced ones.
Halle wears many hats when working on Haunted Words: she is editor-in-chief; social-media manager; she handles submissions, publishing, marketing, and much more. I asked her what the struggles of being a one-person team were. ‘The big one is money’, they say. ‘When we started with the 2022 Anthology, our first print version, money was definitely a struggle because it came out of pocket for me. And so I paid the printing press, and all the up-front fees to print it, and to ship it, and to market it.’ With their second printed issue, We Will Not Stay Buried, the Pride Edition, the many pre-orders thankfully covered the expense. ‘We're now starting to be in a place where sales from the previous editions can cover the printing costs of the next one, which is great!’ But Halle does mention how stressful it is to do it alone: ‘It's a lot to do when you're also working a full-time job and, up until a few months ago, also studying.’
Halle runs the Student Mentors at Falmouth University, a student support scheme that places incoming students with trained students to help them adjust to university life. I joke that they’ve stayed local. ‘Yes,’ Halle laughs, ‘Falmouth let me stay.’ The truth is, Halle didn’t want to move to London where most publishing houses and press are, so starting their own was the way to go. ‘I'm not from Cornwall, but I moved down here five years ago, and I fell in love with it. Falmouth, not just the University, but the place, is full of the creative and performing arts students that study here, and the graduates and alumni that stay here. So, it's a really great place to get a creative network and meet people that share the same interests and values as you.’
Any closing words, I ask Halle, to everyone in the world? ‘Everyone in the world,’ Halle smiles, ‘yes. I did a guest lecture last year for 1st Years on Creative Writing about Haunted Words and they asked me what I would recommend to people who wanted to start their own. And I would say: just do it. There's always space for another lit mag.’
You can find Halle at @haunted_press on Twitter, @hauntedwordspress on Instagram, and www.hauntedwordspress.com