Editor Interview: South Florida Poetry Journal

Art's Famished Howl

Anhinga Press, Apalachee Review, Poetry, Poet Lore, Poetrybay, Poets & Writers, Florida Review, Nimrod, Ploughshares.

Over the past ten years, we have published well-known authors and first-time writers and artists in each of our eight departments: Poetry, Flash, Essays, Interviews, Reviews, Special Features, Video, and Visual Arts. With each new issue, we add new favorites.

The main thing that makes any publication different from any other would have to be the people doing the work: our readers & our editors. The next thing is our process. The senior editors read every submission. It is a huge commitment, but no submission is accepted or declined unless the senior editors have weighed in.

Consider our invitation: If you are a poet, prophet, peace-loving artist, if you are tolerant, traditional or anarchistic, haiku or epic, and points in between; if your poems sing, shout, whisper, dance, scratch, tickle, trot or crawl; if you value the humane treatment of every creature and the planet on which we dwell, SoFloPoJo seeks your best work.
What do we mean when we say "your best work?" Or that we seek well-crafted poems that are thematically complex, emotionally nuanced, or "in your face," filled with images that excite wonder, mystery and dread, and challenge the reader to question their assumptions? We invite you to check out our Nominations page to see some of what excited our editors.

Work that moves and amazes us (and follows the submission guidelines).

Two main things:
1.) Poetry Submissions are read anonymously (the author's name should not appear on the poems) and
2.) Poetry Submissions are limited to one document containing up to three poems, not to exceed five pages in total.
We restate these conditions multiple times in the submission process but have to disqualify submissions in each submission call.
Plus, for poetry, we allow an optional audio file to accompany the submission. Few writers take us up on that, but a great audio performance has made the difference between an acceptance and a decline more than once.

Since we read all of the poetry submissions concealed, cover letters are, for the most part, irrelevant. Publication credits, though interesting, are not visible to the associate or senior editors during the Poetry submission approval process and therefore do not affect our decisions.

We allow submission of 3 poems on up to 5 pages total. Essays up to 1500 words (with some exceptions). Flash up to 750 words (ditto). So there is no case where we have to read far or long before we have a good idea of the quality of the work. I do not like to decline a submission without reading it all the way through.

We use a labeling system inside Submittable. If a submission has a yes vote from two of the four senior editors, it is labeled for “Senior Editor Review.” Likewise, there is a “Must Have” label that any senior editor can use to advocate for a particular work. Then the discussions, debates, emails, and late-night coffee clatches begin.

When SoFloPoJo began in 2016, we designed the operation on a frugal budget. We do all our graphic arts, web design, layout, web maintenance, video editing, and social media, so there is no downtime. Still, the most important thing in the submission reading process is to bring a receptive mind to the task. It would be a disservice to the author to do any less. That sometimes means the first thing an editor has to deal with are the distractions and deadlines that would interfere with an effective reading process.
As to hour-by-hour, day-to-day tasks, it depends on where we are in the reading cycle. We have four three-month reading cycles each year and always receive more submissions in the last month of each cycle than in the preceding two months.

Prior to acceptance, we might suggest a cut. The most common cut is the last line where the author restates their case, but the editors felt it was already well communicated. After acceptance, we have a great copy editor who reports the miscellaneous typos, etc., which we review with the authors. The authors are always given an opportunity to review and approve the layout of their submission before publication.

Yes, we nominate for Pushcarts, Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, etc. Works we have published have also been included in the Wigleaf Longlist, Wigleaf Top 50, and Best American Poetry.

SoFloPoJo is self-funded. We do not collect submission fees or hide the quarterly issues behind a paywall.

We use email and social media to inform our followers of the release of each quarterly issue. We also schedule Zoom launch readings. It's a great way for the authors to mingle and share their work with one another.