ABOUT PAPER DARTS
Founded in August of 2009, Paper Darts has become much more than the original 24 page zine we printed, assembled, and bound with a Singer sewing machine in our living rooms. Two years after Co-founders Jamie Millard, Regan Smith, and Meghan Murphy first launched the Paper Darts website the organization has expanded to include a publishing press, a creative agency for freelance hire, and three additional talented staff members.
All Paper Darts projects are funded entirely by generated revenue, and no member of the staff has ever taken a dime for personal gain. Truly a grassroots project born entirely out of passion (the steamy, super triple xxx hott literary kind of passion), we’re extremely proud of the fact that we’ve never lost money on Paper Darts and have been able to pencil in a notch higher each year on the PD growth chart we keep in our parents' kitchens.
MANIFESTO
With a beer in one tentacle and a book in another, Paper Darts is taking back the lit scene, one lame pen and quill metaphor at a time. We are primarily a magazine, but we are also a publishing press, a creative agency, a community, and an idea.
We believe that the debate about the future of print literature is over, and in some ways, never really began. We are a city, a nation, and a worldwide culture of readers, artists, thinkers, doers, and everything in between. Our generation, the one before us, and the one that will follow, have always and will always value words, images, and the creative conscience in a way that technology can continually evolve and enhance, but never break.
Through humor, original voices, and engaging design, Paper Darts is leading the Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-Together underdog publishing revolution.
PAPER DARTS MAGAZINE
The original PD publication, Paper Darts Magazine is our fuzzy little lovechild of literature and art. If babies were puppies and puppies were birthed by Paper Darts, this magazine would be like the awesomest, shiniest, most bitey (in a good way) puppy you ever tried to lure into a windowless white van.
We publish contributor content online daily whenever we want, which can include anything from music, comics, and videos, to art, fiction, and poetry, plus all the weird stuff in between (if it performs a nice Paper Darts mating dance for us).
We’ve published three full-color, fully-illustrated print issues, with the most recent Volume Three released in March 2011, and plan to start work on Volume Four in the next several months.
PAPER DARTS PRESS
“Boundary-breaking!” “Innovative and inspiring!” “The choreography is only okay but at least the actors are hot!” These are just a few of the things we like to imagine would appear in the full page newspaper ad for our newest wing of the Paper Darts organization, Paper Darts Press.
Launched in April of 2011, Paper Darts Press is ushering in a new approach to creative publishing, based on the intimate collaboration between an author/artist/publisher trifecta. Through unconventional printing practices, beautiful design, and a uniting underdog attitude, we're leading the new Do-It-Yourself and Do-It-Together publishing revolution.
PAPER DARTS AGENCY
Like what you see on the Paper Darts site? Wish you could get a little shot of that vim, vigor, moxie, and madness into your website or organization? Well lucky for you we're always looking to put some more gold doubloons in our pockets and help out a friend or two (or like, ten. Gold is awesome).
Paper Darts is produced by a team of talented writers, designers, marketing experts, and project managers who are all available for hire, either as a group or on an individual basis.
Whatever the scope, whether it’s ongoing freelance work or a one-time project contract, if we have the time, you have our hands.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: So, like, what is Paper Darts? In the deep, philosophical sense, you know?
A: Paper Darts is a lot of things, but it is definitely not a gentle butterfly emerging from the womb of pubescence and self-preservation to alight on a journey towards the never-ending sun of humanity, ink and quill gripped in little butterfly paw.
To see what Paper Darts is, in the actual “this is what we are” sense, see the above about section.
Q: So Paper Darts is your full-time job then, right? If you guys are making such phat greenbacks why don’t you pay your contributors?
A: Nope, sorry all you wide-eyed English and Art majors for whom PD has become a beacon of hope in the shit job slurry of post-college life, all the staff members of PD hold down outside day jobs to pay the bills. PD is something we do in our free time, and all the revenue generated goes directly back into paying for our printing and production costs. No member of Paper Darts has ever taken a dime for personal gain.
We wholeheartedly support putting the monetary value back in writing and art and would one day kill (yes, kill, like maybe a rich old person who was already dead, but not really. We love the elderly!) to pay our contributors, but unfortunately it’s just not in the cards right now.
Hopefully the moths flying out of our pockets will help you understand.
Q: Paper Darts is pretty neat, how can I get involved?
A: Hey thanks, that’s so sweet of you to say! Unfortunately managing a lot of people when you don’t have an office and do most of your communicating through email is kind of hard, so we no longer take on volunteers. We do occasionally put out a call for interns, but will post that on our website if it does happen.
In the meantime, we are always looking for reviews, interviews, and guest blogs for our culture section, so if you have an idea you’d like to pitch email regan(at)paperdarts.org.
Q: How do I submit something?
A: So glad you asked, especially since it’s an easy answer. To submit to the magazine, go to our submissions page. Read the guidelines carefully, they’re there to help you (and us, frealz).
*Please note: Paper Darts Press is not currently accepting manuscript submissions, so don’t even send em, chump.
Q: Facebook and Twitter are great, but I’d really like to take this relationship to the next level and stalk you in person--where’s your office?
A: Good news for us, bad news for you. We don’t have one! If you want to donate an office space or storefront to us (non- basement torture lairs preferred) so that you can stalk most efficiently, we’re down, and will even give you some juicy things to scribble about in your stalker notebook. In the meantime, stick to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.
TIMELINE
September 2008 - May 2009: Co-founders Meghan, Jamie, and Regan first meet when they work together on the staff of Ivory Tower, the University of Minnesota’s undergraduate literary magazine.
May 2009 - August 2009: The trio continues their creative partnership while working on the staff of Alive Magazine, a non-profit publication written for and by young women.
August 19, 2009: The concept of Paper Darts is born.
September 1, 2009: Paperdarts.org officially launches.
December 3, 2009: Release party for the first official print issue of Paper Darts Magazine, Volume One, at the Casket Arts building in NE Minneapolis. Live readings, music by Gabe Barnett, and a new art exhibition by Matt Kunes. Around 150 people attend.
April 6, 2010: Contributor John Gordon reps Paper Darts in the first ever Twin Cities edition of the Opium Magazine Literary Death Match.
July 10 - 17, 2010: Paper Darts rents out the old Arise bookstore in uptown Minneapolis as part of the Storefront-In-A-Box program. Activities include a Books and Bars Tweet up, readings by John Jodzio, Ethan Rutherford, Maggie Ryan Sandford, and Dennis Cass, the PD Volume 2 launch party, and an acoustic show by local band We Became Actors.
July 15, 2010: Release party for Paper Darts Volume Two at the Arise bookstore. Featuring a full art gallery with work from Jennifer Davis and more, live readings, and music by Thomas Kivi. Around 200 people attend.
October, 2010: The PD trio expands to six with the hiring of three interns.
March 3, 2011: PD gets its first real taste of press with a full feature on the front page of the Star Tribune’s Variety section. The media coverage continues with an interview with Euan Kerr of Minnesota Public Radio, a write up in City Pages, and an interview with Red Sofa Literary.
March 5, 2011: Launch party for Paper Darts Volume Three. The event takes place at Honey in NE Minneapolis and features readings by John Jodzio, Matt Mauch, and others, music by local band The Chord and the Fawn, and a digital art slideshow. Honey reaches capacity (300 people) midway through the party. PD officially welcomes its three interns on as staff.
June 10, 2011: University of Minnesota alumni Regan, Jamie, and Meghan are featured in an article in the summer edition of the official University of Minnesota Alumni Magazine. The article is also published on the U of M College of Liberal Arts website homepage.
April, 2011: Paper Darts Press is officially formed. Work begins on the debut project, a short story collection by John Jodzio, with 19 original illustrations by local and international artists.
August 11, 2011: The completely redesigned Paperdarts.org website launches.