Editor Interview: misfitmagazine.net

the good the bad the ugly

Slipstream Nerve Cowboy Abbey Lowdown Lummox

From Chaucer to Jim Harrison and everything in between

We do not suffer fools

Read more than you write and learn from it

One that is proofread, that has a clear voice, be it a narrative or experimental, and knows what it is doing. I do not want to read your beer coaster musings, your journal entries after your (girl/boy) friend left, your political rants. And I abhor violence for violence sake. Horror does not move me. Romance bores me. Sick sex belongs locked away in your bedroom.

Too many poems/pages . Are not familiar with out aesthetic.

Cover letters are nice. Personally, I hate writing them so I understand if you don't send one. I am not impressed by resumes. If I like your poems, I'll take one, if I don't, I won't.

All of it.

Depends. Sometimes none, sometimes I make suggestions. I am usually open to a poet's feelings about their work. It is not my work after all. I have rejected pieces when the poet won't accept my bottom line request but that is rare. If I am undecided about a price I will let it sit for a week and reread it twice. If I am still undecided I will wait another week and reread it. If I can't make up my mind by then, I have to let it go. This is rare, though.

Depends upon whether I am writing something of my own. Always time for reading. Usually at night. Revisions in the day, writing at night also. No real set schedule since I retired from my menial, demeaning, soul sucking job. I have a family so days can be crowded. We go places, visit, get on with getting on.

Usually very little. Unless it is a piece I see potential in that needs a lot of work. Then I will ask poet to consider suggestions and revise. Other times, I might make word or phrase suggestions. Usually, if I make suggestions, it is to remove something completely. Since I stopped listing on submission sites I don't get too many amateurs. I am relying on word of mouth and poet's sharing their work with other poets and building a network that way. That was my original intent and hope all along and it works. I don't have the time or energy to be someone's creative writing teacher. Besides, I am a writer myself and doing my own work has to take precedence over other people's. That does not mean I am insensitive to submitters. I still write every single rejection or acceptance notice individually. I am rarely nasty ,though I have been. Some people ask for it so why should I disappoint them? If the magazine takes too much of m creative time, then it will have to go. That said, I have no plans to stop doing Misfit.