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Editor Interview: Ground Fresh Thursday / GFT Presents: One in Four

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

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

A: Literature and Art

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

A: Boulevard, Two Sylvias Press, Indiana Voice Journal, The Sun, Rattle, and a variety of others.

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

A: It is really all over the place. Anyone from Percy Bysshe Shelley to e e cummings to Jasper Fforde to Blake to Doyle to Koontz to Sniegoski to…well, I try not to box myself in when it comes to sticking to only certain authors or styles. I have many types of authors whom I admire, and I admire them for many different reasons.

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

A: We are specifically working to support mental health initiatives through the publication of literature and art.

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

A: Read the work we have already published and make sure that your submission is properly edited, polished, and that you have followed all of the submission guidelines.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: The best submissions are the ones that I read through without being sure if I remembered to breathe or not, ones that are perfectly edited, have a strong, honest voice, and which are working to reach beyond the page.

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

A: Too many folks do not take the time to review the submission guidelines or review the work that we have already published. One thing that really surprises me is when submitters do not include a third person bio.

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

A: Long lists of publication credits do not impress us. We like to hear about the person themselves first, and then, of course, we are happy to hear all about their writing—just not in the form of a list of dozens of publications they’ve been published in. Three or four places they’ve been published is fine. We love when submitters share their websites and social media links, though.

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

A: It would be doing people a disservice not to read their submissions all the way through. With that being said, there have been a few exceptions, such as when we have had writers submit certain types of work that we do not publish.

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

A: We are very thorough in our review process. ALL submissions, at one point or another, go through me for the final decision. There have been times when we've found a piece that is rather striking but happens to need a few simple edits before we can actually publish it. In those cases, we are very good about working with our contributors, and our contributors have been amazing to work with.

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

A: I suppose a lot of folks wonder what really goes down behind the scenes. I promise that it is not as interesting and mysterious as some may think. It can be a lot of fun, though. The process is pretty much straightforward: I see where we are at with needs for upcoming publications, sort through submissions based on that information, review and/or assign those submissions, contact submitters and upcoming contributors as needed, and issue acceptance and decline emails with additional information and occasional requests.

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

A: I think it is twofold. Electronic submissions and e-publishing are a must nowadays in order to increase our reach to both writers and the general public, but even with embracing that new technology, I think it would serve the writing community well to publish more actual print journals, but I totally understand that the expense of doing so makes it difficult. We have an approach that embraces both sides—we publish in print semiannually and online monthly.