Editor Interview: The Heron's Nest

English-language haiku

Among English-language haiku journals,I personally subscribe to Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Acorn, Mariposa, and Mayfly. I have purchased haiku calendars from Snapshot press during each of the last nine years.
My publisher, for my last four collections, has been Red Moon Press.
I am a member of the Route 9 Haiku group, which publishes Upstate Dim Sum.
To attempt a further list of what I like and admire would be exhausting and would risk inadvertent omissions. English-language haiku is lively and thriving on a world-wide basis.

My "favorite poets" is a very long list. For the sake of this exercise, I'll confine myself to a few examples of poets no longer living.
In general: William Butler Yeats, Wallace Stevens, Sylvia Plath
In English-language haiku: John Wills, Nick Virgilio, Peggy Willis Lyles

1) Selection of material in the light of stated preferences
2) Publication in both electronic and print editions
3) Extensive comment on an "editors' choice" poem (each quarterly edition) and readers' comments on selected poems (annual edition)
4) Sixteen years of continuous and timely publication
5) Selection by a team of six editors, representing a spectrum of taste and opinion

I would start with the advice I'd give regarding any publication: read the journal and become familiar with what it publishes. The first editorial choice should be your own - is this where my poems belong?
In the case of The Heron's Nest, I recommend that you also read all of the material on our "submit" page, which states our philosophy and presents our guidelines.
Thirdly, I would advise patience and tenacity. The Heron's Nest prints a small part of what is submitted to us. But we are on your side. We want to find something wonderful in your submission and we have no preconceived expectations about who we will publish. A "beginner's mind" is often a real asset in English-language haiku.

Five to fifteen English-language haiku, written in one, two or three lines.
We accept either electronic or postal submissions (though most of our editors prefer electronic submissions).
If new to The Heron's Nest, please select one of our associate editors (listed on our web pages) and submit your work through her or him.
As to the nature of the "ideal submission" - we are looking for English-language haiku that refresh a traditional approach to the genre.

Any time that we get a set of poems that seems to presume that haiku is "anything written in a pattern of 5, 7, and 5 syllables" or when we get poems whose language could fairly be characterized as gaudy or grandiose, we feel certain that the poet has either not read The Heron's Nest or has not understood what they have read.
In terms of the process of submission, we occasionally see new people submitting to more than one of our associate editors. We simply correct this, without any fuss.
There have been instances in which work we have accepted is published elsewhere first. We require first publication and will withdraw anything we know has been published elsewhere. While this is usually an accidental oversight, repeated instances would be a big problem.

There is a strong element of community among English-language haiku poets and we would love to know anyone who writes in this genre. But we don't need to know anything at all about the people who submit to The Heron's Nest (other than how to reach them with our reply). No cover note is required. No list of previous publication credits is required or, indeed, relevant for our purposes.

Haiku are very short poems so this is not a factor as it might be for longer poems.
The work selected for publication in The Heron's Nest receives more editorial attention than almost anything else published in the genre. Each poet works with one of our associate editors. The work that is forwarded by an associate editor must then achieve approval by at least two thirds of our entire editorial team. Every poem that is submitted receives multiple readings.
Our annual print edition contains poems that have been voted as best by our readers. These poems have, thus, been through a long formal editorial review by our editorial team and a subsequent selection by readers (most of whom are themselves poets) and represent strong examples of where the genre stands (at least in the "traditional" mode).

My previous answer partly anticipated this question.
We do occasionally make suggestions to a poet. They might either be optional (the work is selected, whatever the poet decides) or mandatory (a change is required as a condition for publication). When making suggestions, we attempt to be clear about what we are suggesting and why we consider it an improvement. And we avoid making suggestions if the poet has expressed a preference that we refrain.
There is a great deal of discussion among editors during the selection process. As managing editor, I consider it my role to encourage this discussion.

I am employed full-time as an administrator for the New York State Office of Mental Health. My editorial day starts with about an hour of work before I leave for the office in the morning and another two hours, approximately, in the evening. When we are in a submission period, I produce a roster of poems from those forwarded by the associate editors, then administer a discussion and voting process, plus a further selection process to identify "editors' choice" poems. I order the selected poems for presentation in the journal, prepare a draft for the web editor, layout the print edition, prepare notices about the journal (illustration contest, ordering of print edition, etc.), prepare postal and electronic mailings, manage accounts, negotiate with printers, buy supplies, reply to correspondence, recruit when necessary, etc. etc. A particular day depends upon what has to be done at the moment.