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Editor Interview: Helios Quarterly 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: Nuanced and critical pulp

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

A: Hermeneutic Chaos Literary Journal/Press, Raw Dog Screaming Press, Luna Station Quarterly, Ragnork Publications, and Apex Magazine to name a few.

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

A: Edgar Allen Poe, Toni Morrison, and Ray Bradbury

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

A: Unlike a lot of magazines who use diversity as a buzzword, Eos•Quarterly within each issue of Helios is a dedicated space to underrepresented and marginalized speculative fiction writers. We also strive to present a range of stories, fiction, poetry and art to please pulp lovers and literary fanatics alike.

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

A: Read the guidelines. Also, submit only to the theme presented. We have themed issues to cut back on the amount of submissions in general, that's true. However, the themes also help us craft the issue and select relevant artwork.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: A submission that gets my heart racing and makes me check under my bed for monsters for sure.

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

A: Oddly enough it's where to submit and the subject line of the email (relevant so I can search by issue and category).

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

A: Not particularly. I love publishing first time authors and pros. An interesting and or quirky cover letter from a first time author may sway me however.

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

A: I'll confess to a bad habit I don't intend on breaking. I read the first line and the last line of a submission if its fiction. Then, I'll read the first full page. Non-fiction is read in full due to the nature of those submissions. I'll read poetry at least twice.

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

A: Does it fit the theme? Does it fit the other accepted pieces? Is it too similar to the other accepted pieces? So on and so forth.

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

A: Crunching between daytime work to be honest! It's also a lot of review and passing work along to fresh eyes and perspectives.

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

A: I'm firmly against sticking to traditional publishing methods in a digital age, especially when it comes to start ups that haven't made a name for themselves.

Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?

A: I try to be as light as possible. I do switch everything to American English but am always receptive to push back from the authors.