Skip to Content

Editor Interview: Beechwood Review

This interview is provided for archival purposes. The listing is not currently active.

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

A: Minimalist writing & art.

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: Rattle, Tin House, Poetry, Frogpond, Poetry Nook, Storm Cellar, Misty Review, Pea River Journal.

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

A: For non fiction David Sedaris, Plato, and Alan Watts. For fiction, Kurt Vonnegut is number one. For poetry, ee cummings and Wallace Stevens.

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

A: Instead of focusing on one type of minimalist work, we want to incorporate minimalism in any sense, which could inlude multimedia work, fiction, non fiction, and hybrid writing and art. We want to merge experimental and minimalist writing so that we can distill ideas, images, and emotions in as many ways as possible.

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

A: Read and follow the guidelines. Don't give me more than necessary. Sorry, but I'd rather not consider anything but the work when you submit it. This means I don't care about bios, awards, or previous publications. Ask yourself whether what you're submitting is pushing the boundaries of minimalism or if it is just another submission. Learn and master the rules, before straying from them.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: The ideal submission will take me less than a minute to read and consider, but will linger in my mind for much longer than that. It will involve aesthetic and aural elements and will illustrate mastery in writing. The ideal piece of fiction will tell a story where things happen. It will be an adventure of rise and fall, not just a glimpse into an alternate universe. The best poetry will represent an image realistically because it will tickle the senses, emotions, and memories. Non-fiction can do either or. And visual art should do all.

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

A: They send attachments when I tell them to send submissions in the body of an email. They don't send minimalist work. They don't put the correct subject line in the emails they send me. They send bios and other unnecessary information.

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

A: Yes, I do care about cover letters, in that I do not want them. Please don't send them. Please don't tell me anything besides your name. Just send me your work.

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

A: I can generally tell whether I'll use the piece after spending a few minutes with it, but I always read a piece the whole way through before rejecting in. And, if there's any question, I usually re-read the piece twice or three times.

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

A: Every issue will feature 100 pages of content, no more no less. So, before accepting a piece, we have to evaluate whether it will fit into these 100 pages of content. So if you're submitting later in the cycle, longer works will have a more stringent evaluation process.

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

A: I read most of the submissions on my cellphone, on the go, because I think art should be a part of life. Give me something I can relate to as I'm rushing to make an appointment. Give me something that will help me forget about my credit card bills as I take a break from doing my errands. I am looking for keepsakes in the form of art. This micropoem may illustrate it better:
as an editor,
i feel like i am gathering the treasures
of others, a leaf here, a rock
there, a drop
of water.

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

A: It's very important to embrace modern technologies as they offer us new means and mediums for creating art, as well as new ways to get our art into the hands of readers.