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Photos by Jim Craven Grants Pass writer and bookstore owner Bill Doody gazes from the cover of the second issue of Manzanita Quarterly. The photograph was taken by Tee Corinne, one of four local writers who founded the literary journal. The first issue debuted in September. Local Literary quarterly takes root Magazine sprouted from a desire to encourage writers By BILL VARBLE It was May, and four women writers were heading to Myrtle Creek for a meeting of a writing group that moves around downstate Oregon. As Mariah Hegarty remembers it, Tee Corrine, a Grants Pass writer and artist, wondered aloud what the four could to encourage area writers, including themselves. "How about a literary journal?" somebody said. No Rain by Tee Corinne It is important to notice the sound of no rain falling in the midst of a cool wet winter, to rejoice in periods of greater light and turn my face to where the sun would be. Hegarty ran with that. The result is Manzanita Quarterly, a literary quarterly that debuted in September. The winter edition is out now. (It's available for $5 at Bloomsbury Books in Ashland, Yellow Pages Bookstore in Grants Pass or by writing P.O. Box 1234, Ashland, OR 97520.) Unlike many such journals, say, Southern Oregon University's West Wind Review, Manzanita had no deep-pockets institutional parent. Call it a labor of love. Hegarty, 43 and a mother of four, had edited West Wind Review in 1993 after returning to college for an English degree following a divorce. "I absolutely loved it," she says. "It was my favorite job in the world." The idea of a quarterly hit her as a nice dream. "But Tee has this incredible enthusiasm, and she spreads it around," Hegarty says. Maybe they could actually do it. Hegarty borrowed several hundred dollars for the first issue and invited submissions. When she wasn't busy at her day job as a research assistant/typist/gal Friday, Hegarty and her friends read, edited, stapled, folded, had covers printed, and finally ran off 200 copies in late September. "We didn't want to print a thousand and have them in the closet somewhere," she says. Grants Pass writer and bookstore operator Bill Doody chipped in with an underwriting gift as well as some poetry. Mariah Hegarty, a former editor of Southern Oregon University's West Wind Review, launched the Manzanita Quarterly in her spare time with help and contributions from local friends and writers. Tangren Alexander, who teaches philosophy at SOU and was one of those in the car the day the idea was born, was on the first cover. Corinne's photo of Doody is on the current cover. "It's beginning to look like a cast of characters in the Rogue Valley writing community," Hegarty says. Contributors include such writers as Susan Clayton-Goldner, Doody, Sharon Doubiago, Hegarty, Stacie Smith, Jim Somers and many others. Many of the poems in the winter issue address themes such as grief, prejudice, abuse, unresolved relationships. Hegarty doesn't deny it's a bit dark. "It's easy to have something of a seasonal slant as a minor thread," she says."When I thought, boy, this is going to be really dark, I thought, well, that's fine, a lot of people don't live the ideal holiday thing we're all supposed to." Another note in this issue is the absence of prose. That's the luck of the draw, Hegarty says. The mail brought lots of good poems this time around, but no stories that were a good fit. Hegarty says her plan is to publish four times a year, roughly at each equinox and solstice (subscriptions are $20). The journal isn't aimed particularly at women. Her goal for now is simply to stay afloat. "I'd like to retire from this someday, not give it up because it isn't working," she says. There are no immediate plans to go to a slicker look, to sell ads or to pay writers. The deadline for spring submissions is Feb. 7. Writers may send a stamped, self-addressed envelope for guidelines. A reading with poets from the winter issue is planned for 7 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 6 at Bloomsbury in Ashland. Hegarty says even the name was born in that first brainstorming session. The manzanita is a native of the Northwest. Its blossoms are used in a flower essence. They're said to aid in the integration of the physical and the spiritual. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA