I really like magazines which is why I subscribe to a dozen of them and still end up buying a few issues off the rack here and there. That might seem like a lot but if you’ve taken a look at a newstand recently, you realize that at any given time there can be hundreds of current issues of magazines covering any topic imaginable. Mind you, just because they’re out there doesn’t mean they’re any good.

One that is: Seattle’s own Rivet, a quarterly magazine that publishes original nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography and graphic art. Each issue is based on a particular theme which for the current issue is “Secret”. This is the first issue of Rivet that I’ve read and I enjoyed it very much. The magazine is skillfully edited–the works included are complementary but not repetitive. Contributors come from all over, including Seattle, to provide a good blend of voices and perspectives. Rivet can be purchased online or at select newstands and bookstores, check the site for locations.

Recently I spoke with editor Leah Baltus about the magazine; read on past the jump for the questions and answers.

MB: Tell me a little about Rivet: when I walk down to the newstand, there are hundreds of different magazines covering a vast variety of topics. What’s special or unique about Rivet–why should I read it instead of another periodical? What do you consider your focus to be? Who is your audience?

LB: RIVET is unlike other magazines because it uses a theme to highlight connections among a constellation of topics. We’re a new kind of general interest magazine — sort of like a combination of Vanity Fair, Harpers and an art magazine, but more personal and much more independent. Our SECRET issue, for example, covers the mafia, Area 51, exes, Osama, drug habits, homosexuality, satellite mapping, hidden gems and death by chopsticks. We figure people like to learn new things — and you can’t do that inside the air-tight vacuum of a narrow niche.

And by people, I mean our readers, who are mostly ages 20 to 45 and are living in cities around the country.

MB: How did the magazine get its start: who founded it and what were they hoping to accomplish by starting a new magazine?

LB: The magazine got its start about two weeks after I moved to Seattle in 2001 and woke up one morning in with an idea for a magazine. I was 22 — and had all the energy and naivety to prove it. I was (and am) also a writer interested in a lot of different styles and genres and I wanted there to be a place for people like me to get our work out there. In the very beginning, it was just me, a graphic designer and a few friends who were willing to write. Together we made a crappy little 12-page zine with 150 bucks. But the idea was always to create an independent forum for emerging writers and artists. We always wanted to get big enough to take on the corporate magazines, to prove that it can be done. Because when it comes to media, particularly in a democracy, the bottom line should not be the most important thing.

MB:How do you find your contributors? What is is that you’re looking for in a story or an artwork? How do you determine the theme for each issue?

LB: We find our contributors in so many different ways. (So far, there have been something like 230 of them — so we’d have to!) More often than not, though, we track down people whose work we like. Our core staff is about 15 — and they’re all very involved in their orbits of the community — whether that’s art or music or writing or whatever. So in the midst of the tangled web we weave, we’re always getting introduced to talented people with something to say. We’re not looking for anything specific in a story or a piece of art. We just want it to be genuine and different and smart. Other than that, though, pretty much anything goes.

As far as picking the themes: That is by far one of the most fun parts of doing RIVET. The whole staff gets together and brainstorms ideas. Usually a few folks have some ideas rattling around in their brains already and there’s always a list of potential themes taped to my desk because they tend to come to me at very strange times. But we essentially evaluate the possibilities based on the kind of range they have. It’s always a one-word theme — and it’s good if that word has a lot of different meanings. Maybe a political meaning, a scientific meaning, a colloquial meaning. As you can tell by the name of the magazine itself, I find double-entendre utterly irresistible! Plus, I think it’s fascinating the way one word tethers together so many different ideas and proves how related they actually are.

MB: What are the future plans for Rivet–more issues? Larger issues? Expansion into other areas?

LB: The future is always happening so fast and it’s hard to believe some of us have been building this thing for close to six years now. Right now, though, the size and the frequency of the magazine is really working for us and we’re really working on making the issues themselves stronger and stronger as circulation continues to grow. Soon, I hope, we’ll be able to pay stipends to our contributors and staff, and by the end of the year, we plan to have an actual office at long last.