The Raspberry's interview with Siren and Hound magazine
- The Raspberry
- May 14
- 5 min read
Siren and Hound is an independent, multi-media, fantasy-based magazine. In this exclusive interview with us, Emely and Victoria (the creators of the magazine) share their answers to our questions about what it's like being an up-and-coming, fast growing magazine!
Can you give a description of who you guys are?
Siren and Hound is a magazine catered to those who love the unknown, the whimsical, or have fantastical visions of their own. Siren and Hound is the place for those who have ideas, but just haven’t put them out to the world yet. We cover anything and everything fantasy: writing, art, video games, etc. If you want to hear about it, we’ll talk about it happily! In terms of who are the faces behind Siren and Hound, it is founded by two individuals: Victoria (hound) and Emely (siren). Both in their early 20s and both huge fanatics over the fantasy genre. Victoria is more into the video editing and video games and Emely leans more into the art and graphic design side of things, but both have a love for a good book, hence why we offer a bit of everything here.
How was Siren and Hound formed?
To be frank, Siren and Hound doesn’t have an epic or fantastical origin story (as much as we would love to). Emely was always into magazines, as she had been working on one earlier before our debut for a personal project, and well Victoria wasn’t as in the world of magazines, but of course as a good partner took interest. Eventually, it came to the point where we had discussed our love for another magazine: Junizine, which is one of our main inspirations in starting this magazine! Then the impulsive idea just came to us, let’s start a magazine about something we both love. Emely pitched art and graphics and of course Victoria pitched video games and editing, but we landed on the thing we both love: fantasy.
As you are beginning the process of building a magazine, what has been the most exciting/interesting part about starting a Siren and Hound?
Seeing all the wonderful individuals who love a magazine interact with our stuff! It’s been a truly special experience seeing people take an interest in what we have to offer. There are a lot of magazines that are shaping the space in such curious ways, but , getting a comment from someone new, a compliment from a fellow magazine, and being able to do the same for all the incredibly talented people in the space is so refreshing and so rewarding.
What made you choose fantasy as your main publishing genre?
As mentioned previously, Victoria and I were looking for something we both shared interest in. Siren and Hound had quite a few ideas we pitched that either one of us liked and the other didn’t. Even when we landed on the genre of fantasy, there were many niches we delved through, from high fantasy to gothic fantasy to steampunk and more. But, we just find everything and anything fantasy to be so fascinating, so why pick just one? Why not cover everything and anything we love!
Since submissions to your first issue, “The Violence of Creation” are currently open, how do you hope contributors will approach the fantasy genre in their submissions?
What we’re really looking for, is those drafts people are too afraid to share, the ideas that are half for a while but then suddenly find direction, and especially those long lived fantasies that sometimes we’re too comfortable keeping to ourselves, even when we dream of something larger. We want it to be raw and palpable, not just whimsical, or strange, or unforeseen, but accurate representations of the thoughts and dreams we all cannot help but have. But, more catered to “The Violence of Creation”, we want every iteration of the theme, the instances where sacrifice is well worth the outcome and times where the opposite may be true and the future that is forged from the decisions we make isn’t as perfect as we envisioned. All of our submissions should answer the question: is what is lost worth what is gained? Even if the answer is, we just don’t know yet.
On the topic of “The Violence of Creation”, how did you guys come up with that as a theme for this issue?
Well, since this is our first issue we thought it only appropriate to start at the very beginning. Many mythologies, books with gods, or even day to day cycles, go through the motions of birth and death, most use these things as central themes. We took the idea of a creation myth (foundational narratives explaining the world's origin) and looked at one specific aspect we don’t find enough people talking about: sacrifice. Creation cannot occur from nothing, something always comes from something else.
What are your long-term goals and visions with Siren and Hound? Do you plan on releasing more magazine issues?
Of course! We want Siren and Hound to be a long term project, we have many ideas for future issues so no need to worry about us running out of things to talk about anytime soon. In terms of long term goals, we just want to offer this space to as many people as possible, so that we can share, live, and create all the fantastical visions we know everyone has to offer. So continuing to expand our platform is our one big goal as of now, and if enough people are interested we might be looking to start a mail club towards the later half of this year.. (but keep it a secret reader!).
What do you hope readers take away from this interview?
We just hope that all the readers take a moment to consider some of the themes we have laid out for our first issue! Of course, if they’re feeling willing to share, submitting it to our issue or even just letting us know they thought about it and came to their own conclusions on the prompt!
Where can readers find out more about your magazine?
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