I was teaching freshman comp at the Southwest Early College when I first conceived of Umbrella Factory Magazine. My students, young college hopefuls, were torturing the English language and consequently, torturing me. I was telling my wife that I wanted to leave higher education and learn manufacturing. “Like what?” she said. “I don’t know, umbrellas,” I said.
Living in Denver, as we were, I could think of nothing more frivolous or as unnecessary as an umbrella. “If only we could manufacture literature,” she said. We were both writers. Within 36 hours of that conversation, Umbrella Factory Magazine was formed.
Since launching, Umbrella Factory Magazine has done its best to connect well developed readers to the best writing available. The magazine ran quarterly from 2010 to 2019 and from 2020 to the present, it runs bimonthly. UFM offers fiction, nonfiction, poetry and art. Since 2011 UFM has been a participant in the annual Pushcart Press Prize.
Over the years, I have been UFM’s editor-in-chief, poetry editor, fiction editor, copy editor, the marketing department, workshop facilitator, designer and web developer. I am extremely proud of this little magazine, the community it has fostered and its longevity.