ANNOUNCEMENT OF PARTNERSHIP WITH THE SELKIE PUBLICATIONS CIC

We are very pleased to announce that Hillfire Press will now be working closely with The Selkie Publications CIC. This comes after a change in leadership, with Lena Kraus, founder and editor-in-chief of Hillfire Press, taking over as the new managing director of The Selkie and Zala Jambrovic Hatic, Hillfire’s executive editor, taking on the role of chief editor.

The Selkie, a literary magazine with a long-standing tradition of supporting and publishing traditionally underrepresented writers, is an Edinburgh-based publication founded in May 2018 by four students pursuing a creative writing degree at the University of Edinburgh. For years, The Selkie has published works by artists who identify as underrepresented in terms of race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, sex, gender, socio-economic class, neurodivergence, disability, and refugee/immigration status. The Selkie will continue in this tradition, preserving the original nature of the publication.

Taliha Quadri, the former managing director, stepped down with a parting statement:

Chelsea Welsh, Lis Mesa, Sonali Misra and I met in Edinburgh in 2018 and clicked over our shared vision for better representation in literature. We wanted to do something practical to help, so we created an online platform for underrepresented writers: The Selkie. 

Our hopeful little project grew into a community interest company in 2019 with me as its managing director. I’ve loved my time at The Selkie and I’m proud of how far we’ve come, but it’s time for me to move on and for The Selkie to open an exciting new chapter with Lena Kraus at the helm.

I’d like to leave a special thank you to Chelsea, Lis and Sonali for their trust and guidance all these years, and to Sam Le Butt and Lexie Angelo for their support in shaping the company and being so generous with their time.

It’s been a pleasure, Selkies!

Taliha Quadri

We would like to use this opportunity to thank Taliha and the other founders and board members for entrusting us with the future of the publication. This was clearly a labour of love for everyone involved, and we are grateful for the opportunity to lead The Selkie into the next chapter of its journey.

Full speed ahead!

Lena Kraus, Editor-in-Chief
Zala Jambrovic Hatic, Executive Editor