Questionnaire #6: With Joy O’Halloran, Editor-in-Chief of The Watermark (2018-2020)

Question #1: Can you please introduce yourself a little and tell me how long you worked at The Watermark? How did you come to join the staff? 

1. My name is Joy O'Halloran. I was an undergrad at UMass Boston from August 2018 to December 2020, majoring in English (Creative Writing concentration, Economics minor), and I was the Editor in Chief of the Watermark from September 2018 to January 2020. I had previously volunteered at the journal for a couple of months, and I was the only volunteer when the former Editor in Chief graduated, so I was the next obvious choice for Editor in Chief.

Question #2: What was the culture of the journal like at the time, to the best of your recollection? Feel free to include anecdotes or personal recollections as you like. 

1. The journal was a small enough operation that it didn't really have a "culture" per se. There were only two employees maximum, and—at least during my tenure—no volunteers.

Question #3: What was student engagement like during your time at The Watermark, as best you can remember, how many submissions on average did you get per issue? How many people worked together to produce an issue? 

1. This a very rough guess, but I want to say we got maybe 100–150 submissions per semester. Most of them came from undergraduates, a few from grad students, and a few from senior students. Two people collaborated on each issue; during my time, I was focused on selecting and giving feedback to written submissions, while my co-editor was focused on visual submissions and the graphic design of the journal itself.

Question #4: Do you have any memory of how many copies of each issue were made that you worked on? Some editors' notes say ‘This Volume had 4,000 copies made’ and others don’t track production rates. Even a rough guess would be super helpful. 

1. I'm sorry, but this one I really don't remember. 

Question #4.5: How were copies you did print distributed on campus? 

1. As for distribution, they were available for free from the same stands as the student newspaper.

Question #5:  What was institutional support for The Watermark like in your time working at it? What did UMass-provided expertise, mentorship, and support look like?

1. UMass provided the budget for two student employees and for printing the journal each semester. We reported to the same staff member as the student newspaper did, and he was pretty hands-off. This was fine by me, and I had a pretty strong vision of the newspaper and. [note: answer cut off here, no further elaboration given or requested]

Question #6: Some copies of The Watermark mention being able to buy copies online before the website went down. Do you recall if The Watermark had interest from people outside / off of UMass Boston’s Campus? Essentially, what was its reach? 

1. To the best of my knowledge, there was no off-campus interest during my time.

Question #7: While you worked at The Watermark, was there an institutional memory of its past? By that I mean did The Watermark have an archival memory of itself and how it related to predecessors like Howth Castle, or was it more future facing towards producing the next issues? 

1. There was basically no institutional knowledge when I started, outside the little bit of training I got as a volunteer. I spent a lot of time reinventing the wheel, and I tried to write everything down so that future Editors in Chief in my position would have a little more guidance.