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Read all the editors' answers to Duotrope's interview question: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication? Learn more.

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Here is a small sampling from our recent Editor Interviews. We have interviewed over 2,200 editors.

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

A: Join us at our upcoming community write-ins! We'll share behind-the-scenes insights to help you craft your best piece, saving some quiet writing time to work on your entry. Plus you get to hear exactly what the judges are looking for. Check our website for current write-in dates: https://www.tadpolepress.com/100-word-writing-contest

A: We look for: Authenticity of voice, cohesion of conceit, and a sense that nothing is missing – that the poem has pushed as far as it could and dug up some gem from the depths of the unconscious. That it makes us feel something. That it can be read more than once to a greater effect. My common test of a submission that I am on the fence about is whether I remember it after 48 hours. If I do, that is a sign that the voice is strong, which is more important than the poem being perfect. If I have an edit for the poem, the writer is usually willing to hear me out and revise. As a small journal, we are able to value potential over perfection and build those relationships.
We receive many submissions of what is popular at the moment – narrative/prosaic poetry about self-identity. I would love to see more nonfiction submissions, critiques of anything going on in the literary world, examinations of history, ekphrastic writing, and lyrical ecopoetry.
Of course, we want everyone to read our guidelines, purchase print issues, and maybe even write us a little note about why they are submitting. When a submission is completely different in subject or tone from our usual vibe, it seems like the individual is just shooting blindly at too many journals. We also prefer to see at least 3 poems in one document, in 11-14 sized font.
I have a strong aversion to cliché, ripe fruit as sexual allusion, casual bashing of the feminine, poems that could have been short stories and accomplished the same result, childhood memories that are meaningful only to the writer, AI or bot poems, Instapoetry, poems that rely on aphorisms or proverbs, blunt rhetorical questions, lazy use of the word “thing,” poems that poorly use the word “dust,” and poems that explain themselves rather than letting an image speak.
We also do not accept any form of hate speech.

A: Think what you want to say, how you want to say it.
How will you communicate to a readership?

A: Edit, revise, edit, revise, edit, revise. Hone your work to be the best it can be.

A: Please do not submit rhyming, religious, or generally philosophical poetry. First-person POV preferred. No horror, drug use, fantasy, abuse, self-harm, or cruel poetry.

A: Read the submission guidelines - they are there to make the submission process go smoothly for both you and us.
Suburban Witchcraft is what we describe as 'state of the soul', a moment on the intersection of our real world, your dreams and feelings, moments that feel surreal, improbable, painstakingly beautiful or painful when one does not expect them to be, and most of all it is Creativity as a form of existing when the world feels very scary and liminal. Our magazine's name often makes contributors think it is about practical and religious witchcraft, and it can be - but the emphasis is on expression and literary craftsmanship - there is no need for contributors to try and fit a non-existent theme.
Please feel free to TALK about your work - we welcome cover letters that include lore about your submission.
We welcome and celebrate self-published creators and we believe a creative work should never be deemed as 'old' or forgotten - do not shy away from submitting work from your self-published collections.
No need to be excessively formal when addressing the editor; all we ask is Be Kind.

A: Make sure somebody else has read your work — and that you’ve taken their notes to heart and revised accordingly.

A: It goes without saying that reading what a journal publishes will give you a good idea of the kind of work they like. Additionally, work that has been thoughtfully reviewed, revised and edited stands a stronger chance of making the cut. Get a friend to read through your work before you submit to avoid it being passed over because of poor editing.

Margaret R. Sáraco and Mary Brancaccio, Poetry Editors of Platform Review, 04 March 2024

A: Send us that gem of a strange poem of which you are secretly so proud. Send us your poems that live at the very edge of your life and language experience, that take risks. Remember we love a good sentence, and that Moist is not a place for comfortable binaries, of any kind!

A: Please read the previous submissions to get a feel of what we publish and take a chance on yourself. Hope. Dream. Execute. No success story happens without these.

A: Read the journal (and/or the online blog) to get a feel for the tone and style. And follow your passions! If there's something you want to write about - do write in with a pitch!

Phoenix Alexander, Editor-in-Chief, Vector of Vector, 29 February 2024

A: Read our guidelines and read our previously published work for free.

Doug Jacquier, Editor of Witcraft, 28 February 2024