By Gershwin Wanneburg

This article was first published on Gerswin’s Substack, see more of his wonderful writing there. – Ed.

As its name suggests, Tidings of Magpies Magazine is an assortment of interesting things – art, culture, photography, literature – assembled in the same way as the famed bird collects a variety of objects in its nest.

Joy was the first word that came to mind when I looked at its website and interacted with New Jersey-based editor Claire Adas, who reached out to me after reading one of my stories on fellow literature outlet Brittle Paper. Our exchange resulted in one of the most pleasant professional/creative experiences I’ve had in recent years.

Gershwin: Claire, thanks so much for agreeing to “sit down” with me. First of all, so glad to hear you and your family are well. I understand that you all fell ill recently. Is everyone okay?

Claire: Yes, we’re fine thank you! We finally caught Covid a short while back, after avoiding it all these years, but we’re all fully vaccinated, so it wasn’t too terrible.

Gershwin: Now, to the matter at hand, I can’t wait to find out more about you and Tidings of Magpies. Shall we begin with you telling me a bit about yourself, your personal and professional background and how Tidings of Magpies came to be?

Claire: Thank you for your kind words! I love that joy is the word that came to mind when you first saw Tidings of Magpies, and it is, indeed, a labor of love. Much love!

My background: I studied English literature at Rutgers University and Oxford University and graduated from Rutgers with a BA in English and Cinema Studies. 

After graduation I wrote, produced, cast, directed and edited two old-school 16 mm independent feature films. They were well-received by members of the independent film world. The films played at various festivals and markets, and I was invited to take part in the Young Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and in John Pierson’s Cold Spring Workshop.

I’ve worked in print publishing (book and magazine) and as an online content editor. I’ve written on food for NPR, and on film for The Guardian UK. I write short stories, essays, and I’ve written a novel that is yet-to-be discovered.

In 2021 I decided to publish an online arts and culture magazine called Tidings of Magpies, with the hope of sharing thoughtful and thought-provoking images and words from artists and writers around the world. The magazine has exceeded my expectations, and currently represents a wonderful and ever-growing international community of creative people.

Gershwin: I have to say: I am so impressed with the broad diversity of your tastes. I see you have featured everything from the work of an 18th century Zen Japanese poet, Taigu Ryokan, to cartoons by Lauren Barnett. How would you classify your tastes when it comes to the different genres that you feature so beautifully in Tidings? 

Claire: Thank you again for your kind words! I see a connection between Barnett’s cartoons and Taigu Ryokan’s poem! They’re both looking at the world from a slightly different angle than the rest of us, in a way that may seem silly or foolish, but ultimately makes us question why we see the world the way we do, and why we define success in the way that we do.

I love the fact that as humans we feel a compunction to make connections and then use those connections to tell stories, so I think that’s an underlying theme that ties the articles together, even if the connections are made as I look at them after they’re all published. 

There are certain ideas I’m fascinated by … time passing, gleaning, in-between times and in-between places, finding beauty in the odd or overlooked, what it means to be human, how we find a place in the world around us—the world of man that we’ve created and the world of nature that we encroach upon. They’re fairly broad themes, but I think about them a lot, and I find it very wonderful to discover that other people do as well, and that they write about them, or draw pictures or take photographs to reflect their ideas. 

So to conclude this vague and rambling answer: There is an underlying philosophy, for lack of a better word, that is sort of the loom on which all these other bright threads are woven. 

Gershwin: The name Tidings of Magpies…it’s so evocative. Obviously, the birds are infamous as highly intelligent hoarders and I read somewhere that they are one of the few animal species that can recognise itself in a mirror. But, tell me, what’s the origin of this name?

Claire: For some reason, when I first envisioned the magazine, I just felt it should be named after birds. I really can’t explain why, other than I love birds! I’d thought of something with sparrows or crows or cuckoos, but I was drawn to the fact that magpies collect shiny beautiful things, which I’d be doing with the magazine. And according to the old nursery rhyme (one for sorrow, two for joy…) one magpie is bad luck, so it couldn’t just be one, singular. I’m fascinated by names for collective nouns (murder of crows, murmuration of starlings) so I looked up what a group of magpies is called, and I was absolutely delighted to learn it’s tidings of magpies. Tidings means news! It just made so much sense. 

Gershwin: You say that your magazine has exceeded your expectations. Tell me more. In which way?

Claire: The quality and variety of the work in the magazine is just phenomenal, and I’m just so happy to know that people are making such beautiful art and writing such beautiful words. Discovering new work is a constant source of joy. I’m always a little nervous about contacting people to ask if they want to share their art and words in the magazine, and I’m just so grateful when they get back to me. I’m so grateful for all the work that people have shared! And the moments of connection with artists and writers all over the world are very joyful to me.

Gershwin: I just loved your editor’s letter of the magazine’s May edition, where you talk about how you started Tidings as a sort of communal space where people can share ideas – “a green space where we can walk and talk together…and make something new and beautiful.” I wondered how much of that desire was linked to the current political and social climate in your country? 

Claire: I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to the rest of the world for everything America has become, although it’s depressingly predictable that we would go this route. The last six or seven years, at least, have been quite dark at times. I have felt a lot of hatred and I’m not a hateful person, or at least I don’t want to be. I know that a lot of that hatred and anger is intentionally “triggered” (a word I’ve come to dislike) by people with no further goal than to stir hatred and anger. It makes me sad to see these powerful emotions trivialized and negated in that frustrating way. It’s distracting from more important things, and the news and social media are designed to further distract us and further trivialize our thoughts and feelings. So yes, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I did want to create a space where people could take time to think and feel more deeply, more usefully. And I guess it seems if we could share that space, share those thoughts with our words or images, it would be more than a haven from the noise, it could be something more important and powerful than that. 

Which all sounds ridiculously grand! Sorry! 

Gershwin: Not at all. That sounds like just what the world needs right now. Or at least I do. What you are describing is what I have for long tried to do with my work, in my former life as a journalist, and now as a fiction writer. That goal was to tell untold/overlooked stories. Speaking of which, would you like to share a bit about your overlooked novel? What’s the plot/inspiration? (Sidebar: I have a few in my drafts folder. We could very easily start An Overlooked Novelists’ Club).

Claire: I love that idea! That is one club I would join!

The novel is called Beggarly Riches. It was (very) loosely inspired by the Greek myth of Asclepius (god of medicine) and his daughter Hygiea goddess of cleanliness. It takes place after a war and a pestilence and during a depression; a “here or anywhere” setting that (hopefully) gives the novel the universal and timeless qualities of a fable. A (somewhat Trump-like) charlatan and his daughter arrive in a defunct coal-mining town in an unnamed valley. The doctor preys on superstition, loneliness, and insecurity to persuade his “patients” to place their trust in his medical skills and their money in his pockets. His daughter, an earnest young woman who has been raised in an atmosphere of transience and questionable morality, cleans the houses and bathes the elderly, the children and the sick. She has always tried to turn a blind eye to her father’s more abusive methods, but that becomes more difficult when she forms friendships with the people of the valley.. 

The valley is riddled with poverty and ignorance and peopled by an eccentric cast of characters. The story focuses on the people who live in the valley (“these people”) and the newcomers who take advantage of them or misunderstand them – the charlatan, as well as a “businessman of God” who sells insurance, and a well-meaning schoolteacher.

It’s an old-fashioned novel, in many respects, drawing inspiration from Dostoyevsky, Zola, Dickens, the poetry of TS Eliot, the meditations of John Donne and the lyrics of Reverend Gary Davis. It’s also probably quite strange, though honestly so!

Gershwin: That sounds wonderful. I would love to read that novel. Whether it gets published or not, it sounds like your life as an editor of a literary magazine is perfectly fulfilling. It sounds like a dream job but I’m sure it also comes with many challenges. Please share with me some of the highs and lows.

Claire: At this scale, honestly it’s just pure pleasure! I love every aspect of it. I love discovering work, talking with the artists, formatting articles, thinking about what comes next. I think if it was a bigger project, corporate or commercial, the stress would be increased. One of the ideas behind Tidings of Magpies was to not try to sell anything. I’d like everyone in the world to read it, but I don’t want to trick anyone into doing so. In my experience with other jobs publishing online magazines or anything similar, the subject of articles and features is thought of as “content” and there are various ways to trick people into clicking on it, and all of that becomes more important than the artwork or the words. I didn’t want that, and to this point I’ve been able to avoid it.

Which is not to say that I don’t want the magazine to grow and reach more people and involve more people! I absolutely do, more than anything.

Gershwin: You are speaking my language, Claire. At first glance, the wide variety of content you publish sounds like such a mish-mash but when you read the magazine, it doesn’t appear that way at all. It looks so carefully curated. How on earth do you manage to filter through such a large selection of art, photography, etc, on a monthly basis? Do you have a large staff or a spreadsheet or some other method that helps you source and curate all this content?

Claire: I have a “make the road by walking” editorial calendar, because I never know what will come my way. Having said that, the magazine is carefully curated. Everything is selected by me, either from submissions or from artists or writers I admire who I contact to ask if they have work they would like to share. I try to publish something every few days, but I think of the magazine as a monthly publication, and I gather all the articles at the end of the month as an issue. 

In my head, my ideal is that each month’s issue will have certain elements: A featured photographer, a featured painter or printmaker, an interview, an article about literature, an article about art, an article about film, original fiction or poetry, plus memoir, nature writing. I try not to repeat anything too similar during the month, and I don’t expect to tick every box in every issue, but I try to come as close as possible. I’m pleasantly surprised at how often this has worked, and one of my favorite things is to compile the monthly issue and find connections between all the work we’ve shared, and just revel in the depth and breadth of it.

Gershwin: Like I said, a dream job! I think my favourite feature in Tidings is the expat questionnaire. As someone who has lived abroad and away from home for many, many years, I am very aware of that sense of dislocation, so I find that section really moving. I think it’s also very timely, given that we are living in a time of unprecedented levels of migration, when refugees and immigrants – at least non-Western ones – have been vilified. What inspired you to launch this feature and do it in the way you have, with beautiful images and extensive, almost poetic, journals of expats?

Claire: The world is so vast and our experience of it is so narrow, but that narrow experience becomes our idea of “normal.” Whenever I’ve traveled, I’ve always been sort of bewildered by the idea that these things that are so new to me – smells, grocery stores, light – are everyday humdrum for someone else. I’m fascinated about how that experience changes when you move to a new place. And I’m intrigued by why people decide to live in a new place; or maybe they don’t have a choice about it, and I want to hear that story too. Everybody’s experience must be different, and I’m endlessly interested in those stories. I think everyone should have to experience that on some level, even just for a small while, so that they challenge their idea of normal, so they can think about the small things that mean so much, and so that they can empathize with people starting over or seeing the world from a different experience of life. And if we can’t all experience it, then at least we can read about it in the words of others. 

Gershwin: That goes back to creating a sense of community, I suppose…Does the magazine reflect your personal taste or is there a committee that decides what will go into each edition?

Claire: When I first envisioned the magazine, it was much more of a collaborative effort. It’s still not just me writing, editing, or suggesting people to feature. But I’m the only person to actually hit publish on an article. It’s mostly me choosing what we share. I think that would have bothered me before I had really gotten going with the magazine, but now I’m happy with it. The magazine is a bit wide-ranging, and all of the organizing principles are from my disorganized brain, but I’m very happy that the magazine has a strong voice. (It’s not my voice, but it’s my responsibility to be sure we remain honest to that voice.) It has a recognizable character. That’s important to me. I don’t think it’s my personal taste, but I do think it’s my ideas of what’s important in art and in life. And it’s not crazy things … it’s honesty, sincerity, generosity. And beauty. It’s not feel-good, we tackle some darker thoughts and feelings, but it’s heart-felt. (Like the powerful poem you shared!) I know these are all terms that have lost a bit of impact in overuse, but I’d like to bring them back to their essence. In a throw-away society, these things are profound, they are important.

Gershwin: Indeed. Even the little things we throw away end up causing a huge waste…Why do you think it’s so important to save the discarded?

Claire: A big motivating factor in starting this magazine was to share lesser-heard voices. Those of people creating today, and those of people in decades or centuries past whose work may have been overlooked. I sincerely believe that people are now making and always have made beautiful art, but maybe they have a voice people don’t hear, or maybe they don’t know how to sell it, or maybe they work full time and don’t have time to sell it, or maybe selling it just doesn’t occur to them, because it shouldn’t be part of the creative process. 

So much of the art and fiction you find in online art or literary magazines or on social media is clever but sometimes it seems that it ends there. I think this goes back to the honesty, sincerity, generosity mantra. For many writers or artists who are self-taught, or who are out of the system in any way, or are from a community that’s not largely listened to, they’re creating out of a need to create, a need to say something or express a dream or vision. That’s the most powerful thing, to me. That’s what I’d like to help people share with the world, if only I could. 

Gershwin: Honesty, sincerity, generosity…What a beautiful mantra, Claire! Who are some of the artists, photographers, writers etc that you published that you are really proud of discovering and giving a home to?

Claire: So many! I don’t want to name specific names, because I’m really grateful to anyone who has shared their work with the magazine, and I don’t want to leave anybody out. But I’d say, in general, anybody I’ve interviewed – the whole process is just wonderful. I love going through somebody’s work and trying to understand it better, and then coming up with questions. It’s always a little nerve-wracking to send the questions, because what if the artist says “you don’t understand my work at all!” But that hasn’t happened yet, thank goodness. And it’s such a pleasure when an artist will say that my questions help them to think more deeply about their work or see it in a new way. Which is a pleasure you must understand because these questions have done so for me!

I also just love the moments of connection with people all over the world. When I was formatting the work of a photographer in Barcelona we discovered that we were watching the same World Cup match. I’ve had delightful conversations through Instagram messages and Google translate with poets and photographers in many countries where I’ve never been and don’t speak the language. I just have this lovely feeling of finding kindred spirits all over the world. And everybody has been so kind, so pleasant and generous. 

And this interaction with you has been one of the best moments of connection yet!

Gershwin: Ditto! This is such an unexpected gift. 

Claire: Thank you! 

Gershwin: Now, what strikes me about your magazine is its strong visual impact. Does that stem from your background as a filmmaker? What else influences your visual approach to the magazine? In other words, what is the mood or design philosophy that you are going for?

When I was first envisioning the magazine, in my head it didn’t look like a slick online magazine, like a clever website. Instead it looked like a big old-school broadsheet newspaper. Really old school – 19th century or earlier – so I think that’s where the heading came from. And I think for the color scheme, obviously for a magazine named after magpies black and white would have made the most sense. But I’ve always been drawn to things that seem dull or plainly colored, but when you look at them in a different light they’re bright and vibrant: Certain stones or bird’s feathers or people’s personalities. So I was inspired by the flashes of blue and green you can see in a magpie’s feathers when you see it from a certain angle. It’s all about the angle you see a thing from!

And much of the visual impact comes from the beauty of the images artists and photographers share in the virtual pages of the magazine!

The way the magazine is most like a film, at least an independent film such as I made, is just the wonderful feeling of working with other people to bring a lot of disparate elements together to make a cohesive vision. And as with an independent film, you end up wearing a lot of different hats and doing a lot of different jobs, but they’re all wonderful jobs.

Gershwin: That’s a very interesting way to put it. Is there a dream writer/photographer/artist that you would like to publish or a dream edition that you would like to see? 

Claire: Not anybody in particular, really. Just in general I’d love to share work from people all over the world. Everywhere! In my head I can picture people in every corner of the world working on things I’d love to share, (I can almost imagine what they’re working on!) and I just have to find them! Or help them to find me!

Gershwin: Claire, thanks again for another lovely exchange. I wish you and Tidings all the best and can’t wait to see what creativity you bring forth in future. Speaking of which, what is your vision for Tidings, what can your readers expect to find on the pages of your magazine in the near or distant future?

Claire: More of the same, I hope. Just to keep slowly growing. I’d love to share more writing – essays and fiction and poetry – find more beautiful art and photography. Share more voices, reach more ears and eyes. I’d like people to look forward to each article or issue, and take the time to read everything, all the way through, even the longer pieces, and take the time to see what I see in all of the images we share. 

Claire’s recommendations (please share your must-reads…anything you like from music to Spotify lists)

I think the whole magazine is basically a long-form version of my recommendations! Most of the music, literature, film, and art I love finds its way there, or will eventually.

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Gershwin Wanneburg is a South African writer and editor, whose career credentials include Reuters news agency and the African Development Bank. See more of his work on Substack, on his website, his blog purpletolavender, and on Instagram at gershwinwanneburg.