Editor Interview: Broadsided Press

Short, vivid, literature.

We are a huge fan of any public art and literature projects - and even moreso of public art that combines the two. Any general-interest publication that publishes poetry, too, gets a thumbs up from us: Orion, The Believer, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, etc.

More than naming individual writers, what we' like to say is that we want pieces that resonate strongly. We are not interested in esoteric art. We like poems and flash fiction with a strong narrative element. We like a "hook" for readers, whether it's sound, subject, or form. We favor earnest over clever, incisive over sentimental. We're not afraid of political work, but it's got to sing, too.

Like many publications, we seek to publish the best possible work we can find. What sets us apart is the post-acceptance collaboration with a visual artist that makes a submission into a Broadsided publication. That, and the fact that our distribution is grass-roots, global, serendipitous, and viral. Our publication is free for anyone with access to a computer, and our goal is to get as many of our publications as we can out onto the streets where random passers-by might encounter them.

Read what we've published. Read our guidelines. Think about what might stop someone in the middle of their busy day and challenge, inspire, surprise, delight. It's hard to get people to stop for poetry and art when bills are due and other matters occupy their mind. Also, send us your best work. Our acceptance rate is very low, since we only publish sixteen to twenty pieces a year.

The ideal submission comes properly formatted and in accordance to our guidelines. It contains short pieces that evoke a visceral response in the reader and have a high level of craft. The subject is surprising, or the approach to the subject is surprising and innovative.

Please include your submission in the BODY of your email. Please do not send us long work -- due to our format, we can only publish shorter pieces.

We pull all biographical information off our submissions when we're reviewing them. Of course, we're curious to know a bit more about who sends us work, but we turn to that after judging submissions on their own merit. We're proud to publish established writers, but we are eager, too, to find new voices.

We read every piece to the end.

We have a very small editorial team, and we all read each submitted piece. After making a first pass-through, we meet and discuss the ones that have caught our attention.