
Stuart wears the Lumen Shirt in Pinstripe, Vanta Pant in Navy Pindot, Aero Half Zip in Navy
I MOVED TO NEW YORK WHEN I WAS 19. I WASN'T GOING TO SCHOOL BUT IT WAS THE BEST EDUCATION.
I was working at A.P.C., playing music with my brother. I was just being young, casting about. Working somewhere like A.P.C. you're interfacing with a creative class of downtown cool kids who are moving the needle in culture. Literary agents are coming in, writers, filmmakers, musicians. Suddenly 1230 Avenue of the Americas wasn't so distant, literally and figuratively. Now it’s a train ride away. Publishing started to feel real.
Around that time I started gravitating more towards publishing. There’s a small press I really admired, still do, called Ugly Duckling Presse. I hit them up and asked, "Can I volunteer? Can I do something? Can I hang around?" and they were like, "Sure, come through." I can’t even call it an internship. I was helping them hand-stitch chapbooks. That was a big moment of being like, okay, these are little micro steps within a macro goal. .
My gas tank was starting to run on E. I’m 21. What's the next move? I was craving an actual formal education, so I moved back to Kansas to go to KU. I told myself, “It's going to be three years, then I can go to the next step”.
Around that time I started gravitating more towards publishing. There’s a small press I really admired, still do, called Ugly Duckling Presse. I hit them up and asked, "Can I volunteer? Can I do something? Can I hang around?" and they were like, "Sure, come through." I can’t even call it an internship. I was helping them hand-stitch chapbooks. That was a big moment of being like, okay, these are little micro steps within a macro goal. .
My gas tank was starting to run on E. I’m 21. What's the next move? I was craving an actual formal education, so I moved back to Kansas to go to KU. I told myself, “It's going to be three years, then I can go to the next step”.