Sarah Burnett is the founding secretary of the YSU Student Literary Arts Association.

How and why did Jenny Mag come into existence? What role did you play in it? What motivated you to be a part of creating an online literary magazine for and out of Youngstown?

I don’t even think I’m the one to answer this. I remember it got thrown around as a potential project at the first meeting I ever attended, which would have been a couple years before Jenny was actually conceptualized. By the time that happened, I was already so deep in SLAA that it was impossible for me to not be part of it, and I got swept along for the ride.  

My part was initially meant to be secretary to the club, but that’s not where my role ended. I was anything that any member of the club needed me to be. I was the right hand of the president, and the super organized party planner. I was the collector and runner of auctions and perpetual lists. Was there enough wine? Did we bring enough food? Here, Dave, take my laptop and please help with the technology aspects! Does the mic work? Do I have to get on stage and talk? Why did I agree to get on stage and talk!?

But I was one of the first on-site to help set up and one of the last off-site after we tore it all down, and every single premier night felt like adrenaline and victory. Except for the church. That was adrenaline and sweat and misery.

What was the original mission you envisioned for Jenny? What was it like to begin producing the magazine and introducing it through public celebrations over those first few years? Were there challenges? How did the public receive it?

I think I pictured something small and quiet, and instead I remember this very boisterous and active first premier, with so many faces I didn’t even know. I knew that we’d gotten submissions from around the world so I don’t know why I was surprised that there was such a force that came out to see this first issue finally go live.

What makes Jenny stand out among other literary magazines for you?

I don’t know about other lit magazines, but this one is produced with love and dedication. That’s what makes Jenny stand out to me.

When did you know that Jenny Magazine was picking up speed and becoming a cornerstone of Youngstown’s literary culture?

I feel like I realized it was going to be a ‘thing’ when we opened submissions for our first issue. Suddenly we had hundreds of submissions we were wading through and everything just kind of plowed forward from there.  

What is your favorite memory from your time creating and establishing Jenny?

What wasn’t my favorite memory of it all? I loved watching from the sidelines at the premiers as people came together to celebrate. I did a lot of work for those premiers, whether anyone knew it or not, and sometimes my favorite part of it all was standing back and watching it all come together.

Tell us about your Youngstown. The Youngstown from ten years ago, when a crew of undergraduate students decided to make a literary magazine and present it to the community here? What was Youngstown and life at YSU like then? What does it appear to be now, whether you are still nearby, or whether you have drifted further afield.

My Youngstown was amazing. I have memories on every corner, in every building on campus, in every bar downtown.

Those buildings and those bars forged a deep bond where individuals and individual personalities meshed together to form a core group, and together we somehow managed to create something great that goes beyond just a literary magazines. That experience gave me the strength to move forward in many areas in my life, and I will be forever grateful that it did.

I hold each moment of my time in SLAA and my time with Jenny in my heart so tightly, and while I initially dreaded going back onto my old laptop and external hard drive to sift through all the photos we accumulated over the premiers, it ended up healing parts of me I didn’t know were still fractured from leaving this community.