Editor Interview: The MacGuffin Poet Hunt Contest

Contemplative &/o Quirky

So many journals are doing the good work of supporting literary arts in this era of humanistic austerity. I am a big fan of some of the well-known magazines, such as Poetry, Ploughshares, Greensborough Review, and Agni. I also admire Tim Green's work with Rattle, keeping poetry at the center of public discussions. I have a sweet spot for journals published along and/or near the Rustbelt, including West Branch, Passages North, Third Coast, and, of course, Belt Magazine. I'm inspired by the work of colleagues of mine, in particular, Michael Meyerhofer at Atticus Review and Sarah Brockhaus and John Nieves at The Shore for advancing the voices of newer writers and embracing the risk-taking of newer digital poetry media, including multimodal poems.

This question is difficult to answer. Do you mean who are my favorite writers of all time, or who are my favorite writers we have published in The MacGuffin? My all-time favorite poets range from Maria Rainer Rilke to Larry Levis. I am a sucker for the lyrical line and the poetic leap into history, character, a different arc, a seeming non-sequitur that--unexpectedly--makes sense. I think Mark Doty has used the phrase "surprising yet inevitable." Give me surprising yet inevitable poems, like those of Carolyn Forché and of Doty, himself, or other lyrical poets: Ocean Vuong, Paul Guest, Michael Meyerhoffer, Darren Alehandro Holnes, Erica Reid, and Ayokunle Falomo.
I look for the same forms of leaps in fiction. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is my all-time favorite writer, but Richard Powers is making a mad dash for that position, and he may yet topple Marquez! That said, I read broadly. Mark Helprin, Julia Otsuka, Katzuo Ishiguro, Kerri Maher... but also Michio Kaku, John Koenig, Scott Lyons, etc.. I love a poem or a story that brings in a bit of science or history. A beautiful map of language that also edifies and awes? I'm in!

We are celebrating our 40th anniversary year in 2024. Writers who appear on our pages also appear alongside a featured visual artist in each issue.
Our journal publishes for an international audience, featuring up-and-coming and established writers. Unlike many presses associated with higher education institutions, however, we publish from the site of an open-access two-year (community) college. I know only one other national/international journal does so (see The Meadow from Truckee Meadows Community College).

First: Submit. Just do it! The worst thing that can happen is that we won't publish your work this time around. This is just part of the writing process. If we like your work but think it could use a bit of revision, we will send some of our thoughts.
Second: We publish a wide range of work. We admire work that can multitask--teach us something new, show us a new perspective, but do so while upholding attention to sound, image, or form. We also love a bit of humor. Don't be shy.
Finally: Take a risk. Break out of your shell. Try something new! We want to marvel along with you at this new voice you are discovering!

At the edge of intellect and yearning, magic and science, lyric and form. Yours.

I'm not sure. I think people may not realize how diverse the tastes of our readers are or how various our approaches to reading are. For example, I tend to skip people's cover letters and read submissions first. I do this to avoid letting past publications inform my reading of the new submission. However, I know others prefer to read the cover letter first to get a sense of where the writer has placed their work.
We weigh a lot of considerations when publishing. First and foremost: does most of our editorial team like the work? If the submission is poetry, we look for some balance between the theme, images, sound, and discovery the poem offers. Is the writer doing something new? Or something old but in a new or refreshing way? Have we published this writer before? How long ago? How are characters treated in the story or poem?
We also ask the same kinds of difficult questions that writers ask in the creation process. How do these characters reflect or inform a multicultural, humanistic readership? We resist publishing works that reduce individual characters to caricatures. Where stereotyping or essentializing seems at play in the work, we want to see a payoff--literary, cultural, or otherwise--for such literary choices.

We would love to know how you learned about The MacGuffin and why you selected to submit your work to us.

We typically read the complete submission. Submissions go through two rounds of reading. During the first prescreening round, our readers can vote submissions "up." All submissions that receive an "up" vote will move forward to the full prose or poetry committee, where the team will discuss them for publication.

During our team prose/poetry readings, we discuss the submissions' merits. We entertain a discussion about what readers value about the submissions and also any concerns or dislikes expressed by other committee members. Sometimes, we read the submission aloud--or some of it aloud. Typically, we come to a fairly quick consensus about the submission. Rarely, we will identify a minor but important edit that we believe will make the submission better prior to publication.

We typically accept work as the author has written it. Rarely, we may make some editing recommendations. Typically, however, you should expect your work to be accepted as it is and then to receive a galley copy for proofreading prior to print.

Yes, we nominate both poems and prose for the Pushcart.