Minutes of the Special Emergency Meeting of the Editorial Board of Fallow
Held in the back room of the Juniper Street Co-op, Tuesday, 7:00 p.m.
Recorded by: Maeve, who has requested that her name not appear on the masthead until the matter is resolved.
7:04 — Call to order. Interim editor-in-chief Celia opened the meeting by explaining that she was not, strictly speaking, interim. The title had been applied to her in a group email by Anton, who did not have authority to designate interim officers, since Anton had resigned in March. Anton clarified that his resignation concerned the poetry desk only and that he had retained his role as founding editor, a title Celia said was historical rather than operational. Anton said history was precisely what made it important.
7:11 — Approval of previous minutes. The minutes could not be approved because last month’s meeting was being contested. Three members recalled it as an editorial meeting; two considered it a private gathering; and Lena, who attended by speakerphone from the cereal aisle, maintained that she had been asked to join a birthday dinner. The motion to table the minutes passed, 4–2, with one abstention pending clarification of whether abstention constituted recognition of the board.
7:26 — Circulation. Treasurer Nico reported that the latest issue had been downloaded 39 times. These included ten downloads by contributors, seven by editors, five by people identified as the same editor using different browsers, and one by an unknown reader in Boise. The room asked Nico to identify the reader. Nico said the analytics did not provide a name.
The board agreed that Boise represented a promising growth market.
7:38 — The matter of the masthead. Celia presented two competing mastheads. The first identified her as editor-in-chief, Lena as managing editor, Nico as treasurer, and Anton as founder. The second identified Anton as editor-in-chief, Celia as executive editor, Lena as editor-at-large, and Nico as associate editor for fiscal imagination.
Both mastheads identified Maeve as copy editor. Maeve said she had not agreed to this and had asked, in writing, to stop correcting everyone’s commas. Anton said the comma work was central to the magazine’s identity.
7:52 — Statement of principles. Lena distributed a proposed statement emphasizing solidarity, horizontal governance, collective care, and an unwavering refusal to replicate structures of hierarchy. Celia supported the statement in principle but objected to the absence of a designated person empowered to approve its publication. Anton proposed establishing a committee. The committee would have one chair.
8:09 — Submissions. Maeve asked whether anybody had read the 184 submissions currently pending. Celia had read six. Lena had read nine, but five were the same story, submitted after revision. Anton said he had read a particularly powerful poem about a feral dog. Maeve reminded him that the poem appeared in the magazine two years earlier. He defended his interpretation.
Nico asked whether the reading fee had covered hosting costs. Everyone looked at the floor. The magazine did not charge a reading fee, but several editors had been discussing charging one to fund a redesign of the submissions page.
8:24 — Editorial independence. Celia alleged that Anton had told a rejected poet that the decision was hers alone. Anton denied the allegation but acknowledged telling the poet that he personally would have accepted the work. Lena said this had compromised the board’s integrity. Anton said he was merely being generous. The poet, it emerged, was Lena’s former roommate. Lena requested that this detail be struck from the minutes. Maeve refused.
8:46 — Emergency motion. Anton moved to dissolve the board. Celia ruled the motion out of order. Anton declared the chair vacant. Celia declared Anton’s seat vacant. Lena said she was uncomfortable with the word “vacant” because of its associations with housing insecurity. Nico noted that the board was not paying rent on the room and that the co-op wanted it back at nine.
8:53 — Formation of two publications. By informal consent, Celia would retain Fallow and the existing domain. Anton would found After Fallow, devoted to the same aesthetic commitments but with a more sustainable governance model. Lena would serve as advisory editor of both magazines until she had determined which better embodied community accountability. Nico asked who would pay for the hosting. No answer was recorded.
8:58 — Closing statements. Each faction agreed to issue a statement regretting the other faction’s conduct, affirming its own dedication to literature, and wishing the former colleagues success in their future endeavors. Maeve requested that the statements not be sent to her for proofreading.
9:01 — Adjournment. The meeting ended when the co-op volunteer switched off the lights. The unknown reader in Boise had still not been identified.
Postscript: The next morning, both magazines announced submissions were open. Each received a poem from Anton.
