Skip to Content

Editor Interview: Clarion Magazine

This interview is provided for archival purposes. The listing is not currently active.

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Serious, imaginative work

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: News from the Republic of Letters; The Warwick Review; Literary Imagination; The Charles River Journal; The New Criterion; Vogue; The Wolf; Zoland Poetry; Akcent

Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?

A: Robert Graves; Umberto Eco; Robert Lowell; Geoffrey Hill; Ben Mazer; Philip Nikolayev; Stephen Sturgeon; Katia Kapovich; Angela Carter; Jorge Luis Borges; Zachary Mason

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: We are distinguished by our scrupulous taste, and by the appreciation we show all authors; in the form of detailed feedback.

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: We greatly value writing that exploits the full potential of language; that is, writing in which the language used is not merely a means to some expressive end.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: We are less interested in an author's CV than in learning about her or his influences and intentions. The ideal submission would be presented as a finished product that the author is excited to share, and confident in.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: We are not interested in hearing about prior publication.

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: Biographical information is less interesting to us than the quality of the writing, although we are pleased to develop long-term relationships with authors whose writing we feel demands our support.

Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: We read pieces in their entirety.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?

A: We may accept a piece on the condition of revision, if we are sufficiently excited about the writing despite certain weaknesses.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: The several editors read texts separately, and discuss manuscripts only if we are concerned that a piece of strong writing might not be right for Clarion. Otherwise, our evaluation is private and scrupulous.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: We'll embrace any technology that allows us to present the texts we endorse in a context sufficient to fully convey its quality. Cost saving measures should of course be adopted, in order to reserve funds to aid authors.