Periodical Radio: Interviews with Editors A series of 34 interviews with editors of journals and magazines conducted October 2006 through July 2009 from the internet radio studio at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. ©2009 Steve Black and The College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY Copyright Statement for Periodical Radio: Interviews with Editors This work may be used according to the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution—Non- Commercial—No Derivatives license described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work under the following conditions: Attribution — You must attribute the work to Steve Black (don‘t remove my name from the places it appears in this document). Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without my expressed permission. Steve Black Serials & Reference Librarian Neil Hellman Library The College of Saint Rose 432 Western Ave. Albany, NY 12203 [email protected] ii Periodical Radio: Interviews with Editors Table of Contents 1. Ellen McHale, Executive Director, Voices: Journal of the New York Folklore Society .............1 2. David Nelson, Editor of New York State Conservationist ...........................................................9 3. Dr. Deborah A. Carmichael, Associate Editor, Film and History .............................................19 4. Dr. Richard Koszarski, Editor-in-Chief, Film History ..............................................................28 5. Thomas White, Editor, Documentary ........................................................................................35 6. Dr. Henry E. Mattox, Editor, American Diplomacy ..................................................................43 7. Elizabeth Folwell, Creative Director, Adirondack Life .............................................................51 8. Dr. John A. Lent, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Comic Art ....................................59 9. Margaret Benner, Managing Editor, Weatherwise ....................................................................66 10. Dr. Michael Best, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Information Technologies and International Development ...............................................75 11. Dr. Marjorie Senechal, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Mathematical Intelligencer................................83 12. Bob ―Boze‖ Bell, Executive Editor, True West .......................................................................92 13. Audrey M. Peterson, Editor, American Legacy .....................................................................101 14. Dr. Steven Taylor, Editor, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities ...............................109 15. Dr. Warren Breckman, Co-Executive Editor, Journal of the History of Ideas ......................116 16. Dr. Richard A. Marston, Editor-in-Chief, Geomorphology ...................................................125 17. Dr. Charles Lowry, Editor, portal: Libraries and the Academy ............................................133 18. Dr. Glenn McGee, Editor-in-Chief, American Journal of Bioethics .....................................140 19. Carl Cramer, Publisher, WoodenBoat ....................................................................................149 20. Todd Lappin, Editor, Everywhere ..........................................................................................157 21. Dr. David Kaplan, Editor, National Identities .......................................................................166 22. Amy Standen, Co-Editor, Meat Paper ...................................................................................175 23. Dr. Edna F. Einseidel, Editor, Public Understanding of Science ..........................................183 24. Dr. Doug Ammons, Editor, Psychological Reports ...............................................................191 25. Tim Gallagher, Editor, Living Bird ........................................................................................199 26. Bryan Welch, Publisher and Editorial Director, Mother Earth News ....................................207 27. Ian Woofenden, Senior Editor, Home Power ........................................................................215 28. Dr. Mary E. Rawlinson, Editor, International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics ............................................224 29. Joan Richardson, Editor-in-Chief, Phi Delta Kappan ...........................................................232 30. David Schimke, Editor, Utne Reader ....................................................................................240 31. Robert Alan Schneider, Editor, American Historical Review................................................249 32. John D. Barry, Associate Editor, Bible Study Magazine .......................................................258 33. Parry Teasdale, Editor and Publisher, The Columbia Paper .................................................268 34. Daniel Weiss, Editor and Publisher, The Rejected Quarterly ................................................276 iii 1: Voices: Journal of the New York Folklore Society Interview with Ellen McHale, Executive Director of the New York Folklore Society, October 2006 Welcome to Periodical Radio, the program about magazines and journals. I‘m your host, Steve Black, Librarian at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, and author of the book Serials in Libraries: Issues and Practices. Our program today is about Voices: Journal of the New York Folklore Society. This semi- annual periodical is a membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. Quoting from a recent issue of Voices, ―The NY State Folklore society is a nonprofit statewide organization dedicated to furthering cultural equity and cross cultural understanding through programs that nurture folk cultural expressions within communities where they originate, share these traditions across cultural boundaries, and enhance the understanding and appreciation of folk culture.‖ Voices‘ mix of research articles and stories, interviews, and other informal content is unusual for a periodical. The Spring/Summer 2006 issue has seven feature articles and 12 departments and columns in 48 pages. The longest article is seven pages; many are one page. The design is simple but attractive, with black & white photos and subtle use of two tones of yellow to highlight titles and sidebars, and text is divided into three columns per page. It‘s printed on heavy weight glossy paper, and the text and photos are sharp and easy to read. The content of Voices is remarkable in the broad diversity of topics addressed in the articles and columns. For example, in one recent issue, there are scholarly pieces about a community quilt and about college students‘ trips to spooky places. One article is about folklore literature in subscription full-text databases. Another is about cab drivers in NY City, and one about ―Michigans,‖ a type of chili dog popular in Plattsburg. There‘s a piece about filming the creation of a Buddhist sand mandala, and one that reminiscences about a Grandma, and an obituary of a folk musician. Regular columns include Upstate, Downstate, Foodways, Bookshelf Essentials, Good Spirits, NY Folklore Society News, Eye of the Camera, and Book Reviews. The NY Folklore society‘s web site at www.nyfolklore.org contains a wealth of information that complements their journal. Their web site includes an index of the journal and its predecessors, New York Folklore (1975-1998) and New York Folklore Quarterly (1945-1974). Some full text content from the journals is available on their web site, but they do not have cover-to-cover full text online. 1 My guest today is Ellen McHale, Executive Director of the New York Folklore Society. Ellen holds a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. She‘s a native New Yorker, she has worked for the last seventeen years as a consulting folklorist in many areas of upstate New York and western Massachusetts. Her past positions include director of the Schoharie County Historical Society/Old Stone Fort Museum (1990-1994), director of the Shaker Heritage Society (1986-1987), and assistant director of the Folklife Center of the International House of Philadelphia (1983-1985). She was a Fulbright Scholar in Sweden, and has taught folklore courses at Empire State College and for Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, New York. Steve: Ellen, welcome to the show. Ellen: Thank you. Steve: First of all, our show is about Voices, Journal of the New York Folklore Society. What is Voices about? Ellen: The mission of the magazine is to include the voices of people with New York state and their traditional arts and culture. We try to bring in articles that have to do with first person use of folklore material. That is in looking at it from the outside, looking in and making an evaluation or scholarly pieces on the folklore. That‘s included in the articles, but in a downplayed sense. We really want to hear the voices of the folklore itself coming through. Steve: I guess now‘s a good time to talk for a moment about just what folklore is. Ellen: Depending on who you ask, the definition can be more or less expansive. But folklore is the artistic ways people make sense of everyday life. So they take their experiences and alliances and allegiances they have and create a way to share that knowledge together within a group. So groups are important in folklore. People share folklore from