by Olivia Young

Mare Cierre is a 27-year-old library manager and the founder and creative producer of Hushmarrow, a literary press with a taste for dark fiction, set to release its first magazine Sept. 22.

The debut issue, “What Haunts Us,” will feature pieces of fiction, essays, criticism and original artwork from various creatives. At the heart of it all, Cierre said, is a love for the Bronx and an urge to create something that gives emerging and independent writers a place for their work to live.

Cierre was born and raised in the borough, with two degrees from Lehman College including a bachelor’s in journalism and a master’s in organizational leadership. She’s currently a student at St. John’s University, working on her second master’s in library and information science. Hushmarrow sits at the intersection of these interests, Cierre said.

Though it took time for the concept to materialize into what is now Hushmarrow, Cierre said she noticed there is a lack of infrastructure for books, publishing and journalism in the Bronx, with residents typically commuting to Manhattan or Brooklyn for literary hubs.

“I figured rather than us having to go outside of the borough to find these things, we can create a home for it,” Cierre said.

The name Hushmarrow refers to “hush,” signifying silence and secrets, and “marrow,” representing bones, “the things we carry from the time we’re born until we put them to rest in a casket one day,” Cierre said. She likened it to the weight of writers carrying their drafts, revisions and efforts to make themselves known. Hushmarrow is a place for that writing to stay.

“There is a quiet in it,” Cierre wrote on her Substack. “But there is also something underneath that quiet. There is the body. There is life and death. There is the possibility that something is resting peacefully and the possibility that maybe it isn’t.”

While the focus is to amplify the borough, and ensure consistent literary programming within it, submissions don’t only come from Bronx-based creatives.

The company has six contributing writers — whose subgenres range from Black horror and Southern gothic to ecofiction and visual arts — all of whom have a distinct voice, Cierre said, which is what drew her to them in the first place. Hushmarrow is also supported by four editorial interns, and a programing coordinator and illustrator. 

One of the most recent pieces published on the Hushmarrow Substack, “The Devil at Crossroads: Conjure, the Blues and Black Spiritual Power,” is by contributing writer Alicia Marie. The work describes a scene out of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” where Black sharecroppers, tenant farmers and day laborers are dancing in a Mississippi sawmill turned juke joint, as blues musician Sammi Moore gets up to play. His performance pierces the veil between life and death and draws in the film’s vampire antagonists.

“Sammie’s music does not create the evil and it does not belong to the evil,” Marie writes. “It is simply so powerful that evil hears it. That is a distinction that may feel or seem small until you actually remember how often Black people have been told that the things we carried with us were evil in the first place.”

As for the focus on dark fiction — which encompasses fantasy, horror and psychological thrillers, to name a few — Cierre believes it’s a genre that isn’t celebrated enough. Just as the Bronx is underrepresented, so is horror, Cierre said. At the library where she works, she said horror is the smallest section.

“Genre fiction isn’t taken as seriously as a more literary piece or nonfiction,” Cierre said. “It deserves the same seriousness … I just wanted a space for that.”

The ultimate goal is for Hushmarrow to have a brick-and-mortar location, with a public space for readings, workshops and book launches. This would also create a number of publishing jobs in the Bronx, Cierre explained on her Substack, for editors, writers, designers and other creatives to build a career in the borough.

By press time, Hushmarrow had more than 1,000 Substack followers and a few magazine pre-orders. Cierre is appreciative of the audience Hushmarrow has online, but fears it’s more widespread right now than centralized in the Bronx. Ahead of the first issue’s Sept. 22 release event, Cierre fears a low turnout, but is excited to see attendees review “What Haunts Us” for the first time.

The event will be at the Andrew Freedman Home, located at 1125 Grand Concourse, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. It will feature live readings from contributors, a first look at the debut issue, a preview of its forthcoming anthology, “The Things we Bury,” and remarks from Cierre.

Hushmarrow is also accepting submissions for “The Things we Bury,” set for release early 2027. The deadline is Nov. 15.

Keywords

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