A chat with Arcadia's Josh Isard about publishing with a small press

Author Josh Isard gets up at 5 a.m. to write. so, when we meet at 10:45 for coffee and to talk about writing and publishing, it's already lunchtime for him. Ok, I confess, the egg sandwich he ordered at Michael's Diner in Glenside looked so good that I had one, too!

Arcadia University, recognizable by its main building, Grey Towers Castle, sits across the street from the diner. Isard runs the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Arcadia, a program with about 30 students who are studying fiction-writing and poetry.

Arcadia launched the MFA program in 2011. With so many MFA programs already in existence around the country, why did Arcadia feel it needed one, too?

"We offer something different, both in the region and, I would argue, nationally," Isard says.

"There was no low-residency program in the Philadelphia region." In a low-residency program, students study with their teachers and advisors mostly long-distance, and only get together in person several times a year. Arcadia also offers online classes throughout the year.

Isard explains: "We didn't want to be like a lot of 'low res' programs that just have the week-long meetings and then nothing happens in between other than they talk to their advisors. This is the 21st century — there's a lot more you can do. We are one of few programs to offer online workshops."

The students also have a residency abroad, which Isard says is "very much in keeping with Arcadia traditions [of foreign study]."

In addition to teaching creative writing and running the graduate program, Isard is himself a writer. His first novel, Conquistador of the Useless, was published in 2013 by Cinco Puntos Press. Press co-founder Lee Byrd is a graduate of Beaver College (Arcadia's former name), and was invited to campus to promote the book Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability. In a post-event conversation over coffee, Isard mentioned that he had finished a novel.

Two previous novels already languished in a drawer, not having passed muster with either publishers or their creator. Given his lack of success with full-length fiction, Isard decided to stick to short-story writing.

He wrote a story that he liked about a certain character, shared it with his writing-group friends, and got a positive response. He then wrote another story about this same character, and then more. His writer friends told him "you're writing a novel," but he denied it. "I didn't want to admit it to myself. When you say you're writing a novel, you change your mindset about your work. I had already written two unsuccessful novels. I didn't want to do that again."

Nonetheless, he finished the work and mentioned to Byrd that he was about to submit it to literary agents. She replied: "That really is a terrible process. Why don't you send it to me?" He did, and three months later had an agreement to publish his first novel.

The experience of working with this El Paso-based small press has been wonderful, Isard says. They consult him on decisions, and even answer his calls! They also used cover art by a Tyler-trained artist, Anne Giangiulio.

Isard is now enjoying being part of the local writing community. "There are a lot of good fiction writers around here that people don't know about," he says. "It's fantastic to be a part of it. They pop up all the time when I don't expect it!"