Editor Interview: Cleaver

sharp incisive words

This feels like an impossible question —we admire so many literary magazines, which I suppose is the reason we exist: to be part of this community of writing. Here are a few we admire: Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Split Lip, The Citron Review, CRAFT, Cutleaf, The Offing, Gigantic Sequins, Fictive Dream, Joyland, Atticus Review, Black Warrior, Conjunctions, Blackbird, APR, Posit, Tiny Molecules... This is by no means an exhaustive list!

I don't want to answer this as EIC because what we publish through Cleaver is a team project, not the result of a single editor's aesthetic. We work together to create issues filled with a chorus of voices in many registers: prose and poetry that is specific, authentically voiced, eclectic, and powerful. We don't shy away from writers who take a strong political position, and we value both full-throated passion and quiet, nuanced reflection.

We are serious about literature and art, but we also have a whimsical side.
We take a personal interest in each story, poem, essay, and piece of art that we publish in Cleaver. It's not unusual for us to work with a writer through several revisions before accepting a piece. We also put a lot of thought into the presentation of each work we publish. We care about how it looks on the screen and invest effort into layout and graphics that will make the best possible reading experience. We consider ourselves stewards of the work we published and are dedicated to keeping our extensive archive fully and easily accessible.

Every literary magazine wants its writers to read their guidelines before submitting and to be familiar with the magazine. For the most part, we are flattered to see that our potential writers really do follow our guidelines and demonstrate familiarity with our publication. We have eclectic tastes, but will avoid material with misogynist, racist, or homophobic/transphobic overtones. We will also generally avoid genre writing. Sometimes we love a piece but find it riddled with errors. In this case, we may ask the author to revise and re-submit.

The ideal submission comes from a writer who is familiar enough with our magazine to know that their piece is ... an ideal submission. We also appreciate a well-proofread manuscript, but we're forgiving about small errors. We have copyeditors and proofreaders on staff who go over every piece before publication and we will bring questions back to the writer if we find something that needs clarification. We also offer our contributors a chance to scour a preview link of their piece before publication so we can make any necessary changes (but not a signicant revision!) and update their bio.

Our submission requirements include a request for a brief bio because we genuinely want to get to know you. It's fine if you don't have a ream of publication credits, but let us know something about yourself, serious or whimsical. We also request that you single-space prose submissions. That's because double-spaced text is awkward to read through our submissions management software. That said, if you forget to single-space, no big deal.

We do request a short bio from our submitters. We don't care if you don't have a ream of publications credits, but we want to know about little about you, serious or whimsical. If you have eleven cats and love them all, tell us! Don't blow us off by writing, "I prefer to let my work speak for itself." Also, if you have some connection to us, or if you were sent an encouraging rejection notice and are submitting something new by request, do mention that in your note.

For longer prose submissions, we stop reading a piece the instant we know for certain right away that it is not going to be a good fit for us. Generally, we can tell within a few paragraphs. But if a piece seems like it might work at all, we certainly read it to the end, and again.
For poetry and flash, we read the entire submission. We often offer publication to one or two pieces from a poetry or flash submission.

Every piece is read by at least one senior editor. Sometimes up to seven editors will caucus about a piece. The final decision is made by the most senior editor for that genre. To be specific, I make the final decisions for fiction, Claire Oleson makes the final decisions for poetry, Kathryn Kulpa makes the final decisions for flash, and Sydney Tammarine makes the final decisions for CNF. I often read prose submissions outside of my genre, but always defer to the senior editor.

We tend to read submissions in chunks. So, you might get an answer 24 hours after you submit — or 24 days, depending on our personal schedules. We promise you won't wait 24 months...or years.
Depending on which genre you've submitted and which editor reads your work, you might receive an immediate offer of acceptance, or your piece may need to go to the table for discussion. Sometimes, a piece will be accepted conditionally with a request for revision, or sent back for revision without a firm offer of acceptance. But if you are asked for a revision, take heart: in the end, we've published 95% of the manuscripts we have sent back to the shop.
Poetry generally takes longer than prose. If you haven't heard back, it's okay to query, but please give us at least a month. In general, no news is good news (see above).
We have several tiers of rejection notices, ranging from "thanks, but no thanks" all the way up to "please know that your we loved your work and your piece came close". We think it's important for writers to know that their work was considered seriously and that we value their time and talent. Often, we write a small personal note at the bottom of the form. We give authors a chance to decline feedback if they don't want to hear our ideas.

I answered this above, but will elaborate. We sometimes provide developmental editing, which means that an editor from our staff will work closely with the writer on revisions. We do this mainly for new and emerging authors. We respect our authors' autonomy and will edit direct for "site style" issues, e.g., em-dashes instead of hyphens, and obvious typos, but will not change an author's text without check in with them. The author receives a preview link prior to publication and is invited to let us know if they need to make small changes or want to update their bio.

Yes, we do!