Questionnaire #9: With Carston Anderson Founding Editor-in-Chief of Triptych (2025-Current)

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 Triptych? Can you tell me about the content a bit?

1. My name is Carston Anderson, I am a grad student in the English department getting a Masters of English Education to become a teacher. I have been at UMass off and on since 2016, from undergrad to now. I have always been an English student here. In terms of Triptych, it is a science fiction journal I founded and run alone. I, in retrospect, recognize that it is somewhat unique in the order of campus publications. Most of them are literary magazines, regardless of language. Triptych is a genre magazine (scifi), and I have not really seen much of that on campus. 

Question #2: How many copies did you make? How did you make copies, what was the process for this like? 

1. I made 21 copies originally. A “proof” copy and then the main run of 20 that I distributed freely. I uses the Barns and Noble self printing service because, although many of my peers used Mixam, it is important to me that I have a book that reads as a book-as-object instead of a magazine that reads as a magazine, in terms of materiality. 

Question #3: How were copies you did print distributed on campus? How did you decide who got a copy? 

1. I distributed around 9 on campus via an abandoned newspaper stand on the 6th floor of Wheatley Hall. The great benefit of being a long-time student is I have known that the news stand had been abandoned since at least 2023, and when I emailed the Mass Media about it privately, they told me they didn’t even know it existed and that I was welcome to it. I then secured permission from my department, and now here we are. Friends, of course, got a copy from the stand (and 1 peer got a copy hand delivered as a part of a small press book trade). Otherwise, I left it to fate to see who would pick up a copy. 

Question #4:  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 Triptych get funded?

1. Self funded, a total of $120-ish dollars, in total? I remember before shipping the price of an individual volume was about $3-$4 on account of it being a 6x9 slimmer book. In the interest in honesty, I did apply for an in-house scholarship and, if I win, I intend to use that money to fund a larger print run of Issue #2, which is currently open for submissions via Chillsubs and Duotrope and The Submission Grinder online. 

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: 

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

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

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

1. Yes, through being here for years. Yes, and yes to the final two questions. 

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. The Archives, despite the fact I know first-hand they have a deep interest in securing student run publications, did not know. However, I did speak to the Library staff about potentially donating a copy of Triptych for something like the periodicals section, but was told they did not accept donations anymore. They were, however, mildly interested to clarify if it was a truly student made publication or not. 

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

I do know what The Waterfront is. Staff from it emailed me in November of 2025, directly, for things unrelated to this project and entirely by chance. Since then we have had little to no direct communication.