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Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.
A: Reviews & original works
Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?
A: Marilynne Robinson and Jhumpa Lahiri are all-timers for me, but I'm also excited about the careers of some up-and-coming authors like Sarah Gerard, Matthew Griffin, Mark De Silva, and others.
Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?
A: We were founded by and are still run by a public library, which makes us very unique among lit journals. As part of a library, we're passionate about books, literature, and reading.
Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?
A: This seems obvious, but follow our writing guidelines and read some of our published work first!
Q: Describe the ideal submission.
A: The submission would, of course, be formatted according to our guidelines, would include a personal yet professional introduction, and would express a basic familiarity with our publication. It's always nice when a writer mentions something they've enjoyed about our publication when they submit writing to us.
Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?
A: Most of our submitters follow our guidelines pretty well. Occasionally someone will copy and paste their submission directly into the body of an email (a no-no for us), which makes it difficult to work with.
Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?
A: We don't require cover letters or any introduction at all (time is valuable, and good writing trumps everything anyway), but it never hurts to hear a few unique things about the submitter. We don't need a full bio, but where they're from, where they've been published, and something unique about them is nice to read. We'll need that info if we accept their submission anyway, so might as well send it along from the beginning.
Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?
A: As a policy, we read every piece in its entirety. Occasionally though, we can tell a prose piece isn't going to work very quickly, and spare ourselves the time. Poetry gets read completely, because it can surprise you.
Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?
A: Depending on the type of piece, it will be passed around to other readers beyond the editor for their input. If a piece is close but not quite there, we will work with the writer to see if they can make some requested improvements before we accept it. With poetry, we will sometimes request additional poems for the purposes of evalaution.
Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?
A: Busy! I am also a librarian, and a freelance writer myself. My life as an editor means using every scrap of time to complete tasks--reading submissions, editing pieces, communicating with writers, etc.
Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?
A: We're an online journal, so obviously we're doing that in a lot of ways. We use the social media platforms that work for us.
Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?
A: Poetry we do hardly any editing, beyond sometimes clarifying choices with poets. Fiction and essays get copy- and line-edited to the level they need. Reviews tend to need to most editing for purposes of clarification and concision.