A Lit Mag Dedicated to Arts of the Diaspora
Interview with Ron Kavanaugh—Editor of Mosaic
Ron Kavanaugh is founder, editor, and sole manager for Mosaic Literary Magazine, and after fifteen years, it remains a one-man band. Ron works part time for a local museum and runs MosaicBooks.com, which has morphed into a marketing tool for commercial writers. When he’s not doing all that, he’s focused on the daily grind of identifying future content, editing, networking, and updating the website & social media. Even if it’s cliché, he believes that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. That’s not to say you won’t be tired but you’ll feel rewarded.
Interview by Courtney Howell
Courtney Howell: Mosaic was created in 1998. How did you get involved and how has your role with the magazine changed over the years?
Ron Kavanaugh: I actually created Mosaic, and have been the only employee since the start. The original idea came about in 1995, the goal was to start a small print brochure that would preview new books for the Black Diaspora. The brochure would be distributed to local bookstores and be made available to their customers. With little money, time, or interest from publishers the idea was DOA. This was about the time I started to hear about the Internet. So instead of the print brochure I started a website called MosaicBooks.com, which still exists. In 1998, I went back to the original idea but instead of a brochure I started a magazine. I’m publisher, editor, designer, and occasional writer.
CH: There are two important aspects to Mosaic which make it stand out and also lend it a certain urgency not usually found in other lit mags. The first one, the most obvious one, is the magazine’s dedicated focus on authors, photographers, and artists in the black diaspora. What I found most exciting as I was reading through issues was the overall emphasis on mentioning other authors or artists and keeping everything connected. How much of this is intentional and how much comes out as a natural byproduct of a magazine like yours?
Click here A Lit Mag Dedicated to Arts of the Diaspora | The Review Review to read the complete interview.