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Editor Interview: Contemporary Haibun Online

Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

English-language haibun

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

Haibun Today is our only competition and is excellent.

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

Sticking to the genre, we admire the consistently excellent work of Glenn Coats, Jim Kacian, Brynne McAdoo, Claire Everett and Steven Carter, among many many others.

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

The genre is unusual enough itself to be the answer to this question. However, we also publish the very best poets working in this genre on a consistent basis, were the first to do so, and have done so for more than a decade. The very best of this work, along with the very best from other sources, is collected into a print annual. And the online journal is free. We can't see how you can beat that.

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

Know what haibun is before you submit it. And read back issues—they're all archived on the site for your convenience. We receive a fair number of submissions from poets who really have no idea what we do.

Describe the ideal submission.

Three pieces that contain finely honed prose studded with precise poetical haiku, all of which are aware of how the genre has evolved over the centuries and specifically in English in the past 20 years. All this embedded in an email so we don't have to open an attachment (which we won't do, so save yourself the step).

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

It is no simple matter to be expert both at compelling prose and expertly turned haiku, so the number one reason we decline work is the disparity between the elements. On the technical side, we only look at three at a time, we don't open attachments, and we don't publish anything that is not haibun.

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

We need to know nothing. We don't judge by name but by what's on the screen (or, very occasionally, page, but we'd prefer all submissions be electronic). We don't care where you've published—what have you done for us lately?

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

Since haibun are generally short, we read every word. But it is true that we often know how we will respond before we have done so.

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

Every submitted piece is read by all three editors, and we compare notes. That's it.

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

When not traveling the country in our personal jets, or cruising blue waters in our yachts, we're usually in our palatial offices completing questionnaires.

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