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Editor Interview: Driftwood Press Literary Magazine

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Well-crafted sentences.

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

A: Considering our focus on the well-crafted sentence, language, and rhythm, it may be no surprise that the writers and artists we most love are as follows: William Faulkner, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, Don Delillo, Graham Greene, T.S. Eliot, Adrienne Rich, Mary Ruefle, Aase Berg, Anders Nilsen, Jaime and GIlbert Hernandez, Michael DeForge, and David Lapham.

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

A: All contributors are paid ($40 per story; $10 per poem; craft essays, visual arts, and comics vary) and offered an interview to be published alongside their work. Few magazines interact with their writers as much as we do. All fiction contributors work through several line-edits with our diligent editors, which is how editors used to work with writers before "accept as is" became the unfortunate norm; this way, both the fiction and the writer become more polished. Fiction contributors are also offered guest editorships for subsequent issues, which both helps them figure out the contemporary trends, cliches, and mistakes, as well as gives them an additional resume booster. For graphic narrative, we're one of the only literary magazines that has published a serial comic ("Invasive Studies" lasted for eight issues before wrapping up in issue 4.1); we'd love to do it again, so send us your comics.

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

A: Read a back issue or two. We're not looking for any specific themes or topics--only well-crafted writing. Send us sentences that make us read them twice--not out of confusion but admiration.

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

A: Our word limit is a recommendation, not a demand; so is our poem limit. I get too many stories in double-spacing despite asking for single, which tells me I'm part of a blanket submission and they probably haven't read our issues (and therefore know what we're looking for); that said, most stories we publish come to me with double-spacing. We don't care about (and often don't read) cover letters; the writing will always speak for itself, regardless of whether the writer is unpublished or well published. The "submissions process" isn't critical; great writing will get published even if submitted by pigeon and scrawled on a napkin.

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

A: Cover letters with submissions are optional. We usually don't read them; if we do read them, it's only after becoming interested in the work itself. We've published huge names like Chen Chen and Mark Jacobs as well as first timers like Stephen Hundley and Mackinley Greenlaw. Everyone is equal until we see that first line or paragraph. Our guest editors read submissions blind.

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

A: The quality of the writing is evident by the end of the second paragraph--sometimes sooner--but I always try to read the entire story unless egregious or irredeemable missteps occur.

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

A: Speaking for fiction: Our editors can vote "yes," "no," or "maybe." A piece needs two "yes" votes to be published; one "yes" and additional "maybes" succeed only if the managing editor approves. Multiple editors will always read your submission, and the managing editor will always read any submission given a "maybe" or above by even one person. This means you have at least two chances to make it out of the slush. Premium submissions work a little differently (premium cost more but offers a one-week response); for premiums, the piece vaults over the slush pile and straight into the managing editor's lap, which means he's the only one who reads it.
Poetry selection follows a similar model: the editor and managing poetry editor read through submissions and select roughly ten poems each quarter. Additionally, all premium submissions are read by the managing poetry editor.

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

A: Every morning, I wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower, and read a few submissions. If any are exceptional, I'll read them a few more times later in the day (or the next day, after I've let the stories gestate). If I've had to sit on a story for more than a day, it gets a "kind rejection," which is more or less an encouragement to submit more work and a notification for the writer that they made it through round one. Submission fatigue is very real, so I never read more than five submissions per day--usually less.

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

A: At Driftwood, PDF versions of our issues are free to download on our website. But we love print, too--so each issue has a limited print release featuring the visual arts on photo-paper inserts.

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

A: We're far more intensive than the average journal when it comes to polishing our contributors' fiction. Nothing is accepted "as is." We work through substantive edits--usually three to four rounds of line editing--but (outside of incorrect grammar/typos not utilized for a purpose) we never demand any changes. It's a collaborative process, as it should be, but the writer has the final say, and every writer I've worked with has said their story was better at the end of the process. Not only was their story better, but they had the experience of working closely with someone who really gave a damn about their work-- someone who really saw the value and gave it a close eye. The poetry side is similar, though less intensive; many contributing poets work with the managing poetry editor to polish their poem before publication.
All of that isn't to say that we work on rough, rookie, or unpolished material. Don't send us half-considered fiction or poetry. Most of the work we select is highly polished and thoughtful from the moment we set our eyes on it; but there is always room for improvement. Whether you're unpublished or a veteran, there's always room for improvement. If there isn't, why keep writing?