Editor Interview: NonBinary Review

Short-form literature

You can find me lost in the web page of Poetry Foundation, Chestnut Review, and Lolwe. I love speculative writing, so I like FIYAH and Strange Horizons.

I find myself revisiting the works of Chen Chen, Quinn Rennerfeldt, Roseline Mgbodichinma, Pamilerin Jacobs, Franny Choi, and Abdulbaseet Yusuff. I am still exploring art, but I appreciate the works of Joshua Effiong, Foyinsayemi Kilaso, and Anthony Azekwoh.

We publish works that do not conform to the linear and binary style of writing, exploring new aspects of familiar themes. We are also extraordinarily receptive to new writers.

Read and follow the guidelines. Understand the theme and see a clear relation to the theme. Don't be obvious; there is always a hint on what we want for each issue on the call for submissions. Write on the theme and not for the theme.

The ideal submission contains a cover letter with the author's third-person bio, a headshot that's not a selfie, and a valid email address that the author checks regularly. The ideal poetry submission contains 1-3 poems that make innovative use of language rather than relying on white space (because rendering white space for Kindle is really, really difficult). The ideal prose submission is between 2,000 and 3,000 words and explores the theme in an unexpected way. The ideal art submission is a high-quality image with a clear relation to the theme.

The submissions we end up rejecting either don't follow the guidelines or the theme.

We don't care about publication credits. All we need is a name and a valid email address. I typically read submissions blind, so I am unaware of their credentials until later.

I read the entire thing and might sometimes go back to the piece to read it with fresh eyes. However, I can generally tell if a piece is a good fit for us after a few lines.

Each piece goes through at least 5 readers that follow their process. To keep things fair, we have a decline list every week where everyone rereads pieces and can convince us why we should take a piece out of the list.

I check my email and Slack to see if there is anything I need to attend to urgently. After which I look at my reading queue, read and vote on as many submissions as I can. I reach out to our publisher, Li Quintana, for updates and also update the Sheet and Drive as required.

For copy editing and basic proofreading that includes typos and punctuation, we don't consult the authors. For anything grand, we consult authors. Occasionally, we suggest substantial rewrites and may rework the pieces with the author.

We regularly nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Sundress Press's Best of the Net anthology. We think that award nominations are a win/win for any small press - it lets authors know that we recognize the outstanding quality of their work, and anytime one of our authors wins, it reflects well on us as a press.