Mount Island is the first publisher dedicated to rural LGBTQ+ and POC writers and artists. Beginning in October 2019, we are publishing a quarterly digital magazine, an annual print anthology, and special limited editions projects. Along with publishing exceptional new poetry, prose, and artwork, we organize inclusive community events in and around our home base of Vermont.
Why it gotta be rural/LGBTQ+/POC?With our deepening political divides and the rise of emboldened hate groups across the US,
cultural critics have pointed the finger at rural America. Even so, the mainstream American imagination believes in a false countryside—one too white, conservative, or just plain quiet for any queer or Black or brown person to feel at home. But
we are out here, holding down the countryside. Even as we live in the face of constant erasure, we live creatively, infectiously.
The rural-urban divide widens while America overlooks rural life's great diversity. Rural America's queerness and colorfulness are cultural treasures, keys to deep wonder and freedom. The people who make it so should be proud, should say their truths loud and together. So we're creating space for these voices to be heard on their own terms and find solidarity in community.
Mount Island is a magazine by us, of us, and for anybody who wants to see rural America for all it really is.
For more information on our mission as an arts organization, check out:
Learn More: https://mountisland.com