One Magazine, One Story

One Story, a literary magazine based in Park Slope, is a publication with a mission, talent, heart—and a great idea.

First, about the mission: in 2001, publisher Marybeth Batcha, a magazine circulation pro, and Hannah Tinti, award-winning author of The Good Thief and Animal Crackers, had the idea to start a short story magazine.

“After 9/11 everyone was having that moment: 'If I’m going to do something I better do it now.' We thought it would be a small thing that maybe 100 friends or ours would read," Tinti told me over the phone. "But it took off in an enormous way. Now we're one of the largest circulating magazines in the country."

About the talent: One Story publishes some of the best established and emerging short story writers in the country, including Dani Shapiro, Ben Greenman, Kate Walbert, AM Homes, Michael Blumenthal, John Hodgeman and many more names that are not yet on best seller lists but may be one day.

About the heart: mentorship is at the center of One Story’s mission and it means that master writers and editors are teamed up with emerging writers as a way to nurture a community of up-and-comers headed for publication.

“We help writers build a reader base even after a writer publishes in One Story. They become part of the family, and we support them long after,” Tinti told me.

And what's the idea? Actually, it’s a very simple one: putting the spotlight on one story per issue, 18 times a year in a small, pocket-sized booklet that easy to handle and easy to read. 

I asked Hannah Tinti why One Story chose Park Slope as its home base.

"Our office is in between where we both live in Park Slope and the Gowanus,” she told me. “But there's a definite Brooklyn sensibility to One Story. Something about the extremely high quality without the stuffiness of Manhattan."

Clearly, an added perk is that office space in Brooklyn is far less expensive than in Manhattan and the local resources are top notch. “The skill level is high and of high quality,” Tinti told me. But there’s also the added sense of community. “Everyone on staff lives in Brooklyn and rides their bikes to work.”

Tinti also hinted at an effable Brooklyn vibe:  “There’s an energy, a ‘we can do this” that made it all happen. It’s a very Brooklyn kind of thing,” she told me.  

Not only does a veritable bibliography of writers of contemporary fiction live in Park Slope, including Paul Auster, Amy Sohn, Jonathan Safran Foer and Nicole Kraus, but also quite a few literary magazine and publishers are setting up shop here. The ever growing annual Brooklyn Brooklyn Book Festival is also making Brooklyn a major literary destination. 

I asked Tinti if she shares some of the gloom and doom, which surrounds the current state of the publishing industry.

“We’ve done well. Not gloom and doom at all. We’re on Kindle, Nook, and the iPhone. There may be different delivery systems but I think more people are reading,” she told me.

On Friday, One Story held its second annual Debutantes Ball, which is literally a “coming out” party for One Story writers, who are publishing novels and short story collections. It’s also an important fundraiser for the magazine, which is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council for the Arts, subscribers and the generosity of contributors.

Clearly, the One Story team knows how to throw a good party. Isaiah Sheffer, of Selected Shorts, a public radio staple for 30 years, was the MC and in his wonderful booming voice, he announced the names of this year’s debutantes. Scheffer recently invited Hannah Tinti and the magazine to co-host on his show.

Indeed, it’s been a great year for One Story and the ball was a celebration and a raucous good time.

“We’re celebrating mentorship, one writer doing it for the next. We don’t do it for money; it’s a labor of love for both of us. You do it to give back to the pool, to enrich the lives of others and it’s made my life very rich.”