Our Crowdfunding Groups
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The Hot Metal Bridge staff is raising money to fund the publication of our biannual online literary magazine. Help us reach our goal today!
Hot Metal Bridge is the biannual literary magazine created and run by MFA students at the University of Pittsburgh. Since 2007, we’ve been featuring quality work by literary heavyweights and the previously unpublished alike. Every issue we also interview some of our favorite writers; we’ve talked to Maxine Hong Kingston, Eula Biss, Anne Fadiman, and Charles Baxter, to name only a few.
We’re lucky to live in a place like Pittsburgh, because that means Hot Metal Bridge gets to engage with the rich literary scene in Western Pennsylvania, and showcase the talent of Pitt students. The work Hot Metal Bridge publishes often draws from the area’s heritage, and our Winter 2015 issue was entirely homecoming-themed. From our call for submissions:
“We are most interested in showcasing the enormous literary and artistic talent that, however briefly, has called this area home. We’re looking for aesthetically beautiful and emotionally challenging works that search for deeper truth in the human experience. Make us laugh. Make us cry. Make us hungry for a Primanti’s sandwich.”
We have a couple other noteworthy projects in the works. This fall we founded [in brackets], a literary podcast in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh’s radio station, WPTS. Plus, for the past few years our staff has represented Hot Metal Bridge at AWP, America’s largest conference for writing programs. We’re also looking to redesign our website as we continue building our magazine’s reputation in the literary world.
Hot Metal Bridge staff is comprised of Pitt MFA candidates who put every issue together from scratch, sometimes using their own tears. A select number of undergraduates also contribute to HMB by acting as readers.
Every member of the staff gains valuable experience working on a literary magazine, seeing what it’s like behind the scenes to read, select, edit and produce a full issue every semester. No one gets paid. We do what we do because we love it.
"Wanderlust" by Jasper Evans (Hot Metal Bridge, Winter 2015 issue)
As an online magazine, Hot Metal Bridge lives or dies within the digital realm. We’re committed to keeping submission free for everyone, which means that our operating budget can be - and usually is - pretty tight. We realize that if we wish to continue publishing and bolstering HMB's presence in the online literary community and in Pittsburgh as a whole, we need to find a sustainable source of income to keep our web hosting running.
We’d also like to be able to afford a beautiful home for the work that we publish. Literary magazines are becoming more and more visually appealing, online and off, and in order to compete we are in need of a site redesign. To do this well, we'd really like to be able to get a professional consultation with someone more savvy about coding than we are.
"Forked Tongue" by Josh House (Hot Metal Bridge, Spring 2015 issue)
100% of the proceeds from this EngagePitt™ campaign go towards funding the publication of our magazine. That means every dollar you donate helps pay for web hosting, design, and support, which in turn allows student staff members to gain valuable experience working on a literary magazine.
Any contribution helps!
"Untitled 5.29.14" by Pedro Trevino (Hot Metal Bridge, Winter 2015 issue)
Don’t be fooled by the tiny haiku — it can pack a punch. Small but powerful, this level of support will pay our domain name registration for one year.
The celebrated sonneteer William Shakespeare used the form to convey intense emotions — and your profession of love at this level will pay for three months of our web hosting.
Pablo Neruda wrote odes that made everything from lemons to socks seem beautiful. Your $50 will go a long way in helping us pay a designer to beautify our web space.
Ballads have existed for centuries, telling stories in song. Your $100 will pay for a year of web hosting to keep the art and literature we publish alive. We’ll be singing your praises for years to come.
Odysseus sailed the Aegean Sea, Beowulf slayed Grendel, and Gilgamesh searched for the secret of eternal life. You can be a hero of literary history too: as an epic-level supporter, you would be helping us pay a designer to bring our big visions for the magazine to life.
