Editor Interview: Eastern Structures

Ghazals, sijo, haiku

As far as Asian poetry forms written in English are concerned, there's really no other magazine or webzine out there today publishing traditional, formal examples as we do. And in no other contemporary magazine will you find ghazals, Korean sijo, haiku, tanka and other Japanese forms between the same covers. In regards to the more general literary journals, I particularly like Pattern Recognition and Red Fez. I'm proud to say I've contributed to both in the past.

My favourite contemporary ghazal poets would include Steffen Horstmann, Denver Butson, Mace Hosseini, Barbara Little, Eric Torgersen and William Dennis. Edward Baranosky, Tamara K. Walker and L. J. McDowall stand out in my mind when it comes to the Korean form known as sijo. My favourite haiku poets in recent years would include Priscilla and James Lignori, Mark Redfearn, Jim Wilson, Nancy Rullo and Steve Denehan. I'm glad to have been fortunate enough to have published all these poets on occasions over the years.

Ours is the only print magazine out there today that publishes all the major Asian poetry forms: Persian and Arabic ghazals, Korean sijo, Japanese haiku and tanka, etc. Furthermore, ours is the only journal dedicated to form and tradition. You will not find phony ghazals on our pages like most Canadian journals love to promote. Nor will you find the sort of free-form haiku and tanka that tend to pollute the haiku organisations and their in-house journals nowadays.

Become familiar with the magazine and be skilled in the form in which you're working. Simple as that.

An interesting and well-written ghazal, sijo or sequence of haiku or tanka that makes me take notice.

Occasionally we receive submissions that demonstrate no real knowledge of the given form or what Eastern Structures is all about. This is not Gusts, Bottle Rockets or Modern Haiku. We're serious about what we do; we have genuine standards.

Just a little background; previous publications, editorial experience (if any), etc.

Unless it's a total disaster that obviously has no sense of form, a submitted poem gets a thorough reading. An essay or review receives the same treatment.

The relevance of a poem--particularly a haiku--to the season of the year in which an issue will be published comes into play to some degree. Sometimes a particular poem is held over for an issue or two.

Coffee, Coltrane, and "Will you turn that damned television down?!!"

Occasionally a poem might need a bit of tightening or an essay might need some punctuation changes or typo corrections. Other than that, what work we select is publication-ready.

Now that sounds like an idea -- but are there any awards that are worthy of our publications...?