Bridge Work
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Bridge grew out of java-fueled conversations that sprang up in the late Wicker Park bookstore and a ready supply of unpublished material. “Friends would come by to look at the books and discuss what they were reading and writing,” Workman says. “We started talking about putting together a publication that would recognize the connections between disciplines.” Then an undergraduate English major at Northwestern, he was inspired by visiting philosopher Charles Taylor; when he also scored an interview with Kurt Vonnegut in the summer of 2000 and couldn’t sell it, he got serious about starting a journal. He and Walz closed the store in July, and in November brought out the first issue of Bridge. It contained essays, fiction, poetry, and interviews by a “conflation” of established and beginning writers, most of them local. It had 96 pages and sold for $8. They printed 1,000 copies and distributed them nationally to independent bookstores.
Workman and Walz, who married a year ago, still haven’t completed the paperwork that would turn their operation into an official nonprofit; they’re moving in that direction but are wary of losing control to a board that may not share their vision. They got this far on sales, advertising, and subscriptions (recently doubled but still only 200) and by digging into their own pockets. Workman, who serves as publisher as well as editor, pitches the ads, mostly to local businesses. He’s been at it full-time since he was laid off as finance assistant at the New Art Examiner, a job that fell to him after that publication was already in deep trouble. The last two issues, he says, made enough to cover costs (about $8,000). Of course, nobody except the printer is getting paid. Bridge Online launches September 10; the Bridge 5 release party is September 13 (admission is $10 and includes the new issue).
