Kaitlyn Abrams is the founder of the University of Maine’s new environmental journal

In December of her first year as a graduate student at the University of Maine, Kaitlyn Abrams went to the chair of her English department and asked whether the university had any environmental journals. “She said, ‘No, but maybe you should start one,’ ” Abrams said. Which is exactly what Abrams did, with help from faculty and other students. The journal, called Spire, debuted online last week. We called Abrams to talk about Spire and learned a few things about how her path from fiction diverged and what it was like to start a journal from scratch. We also found out about her next move, which involves, of all things, lions.

EVERGREEN STATE: Abrams is a native of Kent, Washington, a Seattle suburb. How did she find her way to Maine? “The siren song of full funding,” she said. She’d graduated from Western Washington University and was up for going far, far away to graduate school. In addition to working on her masters, she teaches English 101. “That is how I put bread on the table.”