We had the good fortune of connecting with Sarah Herrin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, how does your business help the community?
The main goal of our poetry press is to bring awareness to mental health issues and to remind people that they’re not alone. We publish poetry and art anthologies and donate as much as we can to nonprofits that focus on mental health. Building a local community as well as virtual is important to us as creatives ourselves.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Art has always been a safe place for me to process emotions and express mental health struggles. At the Savannah College of Art and Design. I studied visual storytelling like comic books and film, along with script and screen writing, short stories, and standard portfolio classes like anatomy and art history. I gravitated towards poetry because it was a quick and powerful way to get a story across.

Beyond The Veil Press began during the pandemic with the focus of building community around the safe container of art. My generation, kids of the 80’s and 90’s, didn’t really grow up with any support around mental health, so I think the isolation of the pandemic forced a lot of us to open that dialogue with each other and ourselves, and to ask What Do We Need to Heal? A lot of times, we just need a platform to tell our story.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I just moved to San Diego from Denver a couple of months ago! So, I’m still looking for the best places for poets and artists to hang out. We want to get some local events going with a cafe writing session or queer open mic. Tell us your favorite hangouts on our Insta: @beyondtheveilpress.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We’d love to shout out our fellow indie press Twenty Bellows for teaming up with us on events, and queer-owned brewery Goldspot for allowing us to host our open mics. (both based in Denver). The Tejon Collective (also in Denver) for hosting our writers retreat!

Website: beyondtheveilpress.com

Instagram: beyondtheveilpress

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyondtheveilpress/

Image Credits
Sarah Herrin, Tyler Hurula, AJ Wojtalik

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutSocal is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.