Questionnaire #10: With Abbie McCabe, Associate Editor of The In-Between (2025)

Question #1: Can you please introduce yourself a little and tell me how long you have been at UMass, and what you study / studied? What was your role like at The In-Between? Can you tell me about the content a bit?

1. I’m Abbie, and I’ve been at UMB since Fall 2021. I started here as an MA student in English. I’m particularly interested in poetry in translation. In my final semester, I realized that I wanted to be a literary translator and a poet, so I decided to stay on as an MFA student in poetry. I’m in my final semester and will graduate this spring. I was assigned to the editorial team of The In-Between as a practicum project for ENGL 611: Literary Editing and Publishing in Spring 2025. I did a lot of logistical and organizational work, such as making decision spreadsheets and building the website. I also assisted with designing the issue. The In-Between was conceived by the lead editor, Ayesha, as a space to connect Western readers with contemporary Pakistani writers. I grew up in the U.S. and I don’t think I read anything by Pakistani authors until college, when I was assigned a Moshin Hamid novel in a Global Englishes course. It was hard to access information about other Pakistani writers who weren’t as popular in the West. This is the position that I was working from when assembling The In-Between–as a member of an audience curious about up-and-coming Pakistani voices whose work wasn’t accessible outside of Pakistan and/or the Urdu language. We were able to collect a range of poetry, prose, drama, translations, photographs, and visual art; all of which is represented in our first issue in one way or another. We also conducted an interview with the popular Pakistani-American writer Saadia Faruqi, who generously offered to meet with us over Zoom to discuss her work. Ayesha and I interviewed her together so that we could speak from our respective experiences–her as an international student who was educated in Pakistan before coming to the U.S., and me as an American-born translator not familiar with the Pakistani literary canon.

Question #2: Just to confirm, you were in a class for this taught by Professor Askold. I spoke with one of your classmates, Lila, who mentioned there might have been some selection process for how journals were formed. Can you tell me about it, or else correct me if I am wrong about how journal ‘topics’ were picked?

1. There was a preliminary process where each student proposed their own journal. A few of us pitched journals pertaining to translation; so when the selections were narrowed after a voting process, we were grouped together to work on The In-Between with Ayesha. Though I don’t speak Urdu, I did have some experience with publishing translations (my own) and reading (for other journals), so that was my primary focus as an associate editor.

Question #3: Given your journal was a translation journal, how did this function in terms of submissions? I imagine you did not look exclusively to UMass Boston students?

1. Given the focus of the journal, we had a limited pool of writers to draw from. We were looking for some UMB writers, since there’s a strong South Asian student presence with a dedicated student union. However, there was little interest, so we had to look elsewhere. I put up information on our web site; but most of our submissions came from cold contact and good old-fashioned word-of-mouth networking. I looked into using Submittable and Duosuma, but those options were too costly for the scale of our project. Ayesha took on the lion’s share of soliciting submissions. She asked her friends from the Pakistani student union to circulate an official call for submissions we made. She also cold emailed the English departments at a bunch of universities in Pakistan; and reached out to artists through Instagram. We got permission to use some beautiful photos that way! We were also lucky enough to have our call promoted by Saadia Faruqi, and we received a few pieces that way. The whole process was very grassroots, and it was a wonderful way to connect with a wide community of creatives. In terms of contributors–there are pieces from independent artists, college students, professors, published writers, and even a translation of the popular writer Saadat Hasan Manto. It’s a huge mix!

Question #4: How many copies did you make? I believe I recall you saying you made around 30 or 50, when we spoke briefly in the grad lounge about this? How did you make copies, what was the process for this like?

1. I don’t remember the exact number, but I think we ordered 35? [note: other given accounts list 30 from other editors] We had them made through a print-on-demand company we found online. We uploaded our proofs; selected our size and finish and specs; and paid. From what I recall, we ordered on May 1st, and our copies arrived late. I wouldn’t order from that printer again.

Question #4.5: How were copies you did print distributed on campus? How did you decide who got a copy? For example, I think around 10 were left on campus. I have two or three in my possession.

1. We had to supply one copy for each person in the class, which I believe worked out to 16. As I recall, Ayesha gave a few to friends; and we intended to send some out to our U.S.-based contributors, too. Some of the people who attended our launch party took copies. The rest, we left in the English graduate lounge for others to read or take.

Question #5: Would you be willing to comment on how your journal was funded? For example, Lila at Queeah told me they had a Go-Fund-Me that got them several hundred dollars. Amanda at Literally says they paid out of pocket, and printed only a few copies as a result. I know Breakwater is departmentally funded. But how did The In-Between, as the 4th journal of the class, operate?

1. When Ayesha initially proposed the journal, she pitched it as self-funded. We kicked around the idea of fundraising, but our timeline was really short, so she ended up getting support from her sister.

Question #6: I know you’ve been at UMass for awhile now like me, and that we’ve talked already briefly so this next question is kind of tiered; I want to ask about The Watermark. Did it come up in class at all? If not:

A. Did you know about it before the class? If so, then how?

1. I did know about The Watermark. I found out about it early on in my time at UMB, and I promoted it to my students over the years as a good venue for sharing their work. I can’t remember where I first learned about it–I think I looked it up after seeing the newsstands around campus. There were copies in the English grad lounge that I would regularly read, too.

B. Do you ever recall seeing any copies in circulation on campus?

1. Yes, I saw copies floating around campus when The Watermark was active. I believe that, along with Mass Media, there were newsstands in a lot of campus buildings. There were copies of each new issue in the English grad lounge, as well as on the coffee table in the Communication department. It was actually some time before I realized that publication had stopped because I would still see the odd copy laying around campus now and then. The ones in the Communication department were out for at least a semester after The Watermark went dormant. Barring the back issues in the grad lounge, I haven’t seen any copies around in a while.

C. Do you own any copies? A simple yes/no will suffice if you do not want to list specific volumes.

1. I don’t own any copies. I think I only ever read the ones in the grad lounge.

Question #7: To the best of your knowledge, did anyone in the archive or university admin know about your work building a student-led publication? What would you have thought if someone from the archive or the university did show up to class and ask to learn about your class’s project as a student-led publication?

1. No, I don’t believe any administrators knew about our work. I think it was pretty contained to the ecosystem of the English department. It would have been great to talk to archivists to learn more about the history of student publications at UMB. I would have also been happy to speak to administrators about securing resources and/or funding to support the project.

Question #8: Do you know what The Waterfront is, and if so, where did you hear about it?

1. I do know about The Waterfront. I first became aware of it this past fall [2025], when a student in my ENGL 211 class told me about it. We were talking about publication opportunities for undergraduate students, and I mentioned that UMB no longer had its own magazine. The student brought up The Waterfront and forwarded me some information about it, which I subsequently shared with my class. I think this student said she learned about it in one of Professor Fulton’s classes.