Editor Interview: Southword

Poetry, Short Fiction,

Poetry (Chicago), Poetry Review, Poetry London, Granta, Paris Review, A Public Space, the Stinging Fly,

Poets: Michael Symmons Roberts, Alice Oswald, August Kleinzahler, Ilya Kaminsky, Paisley Rekdal, Derek Mahon, Traci Brimhall, Paul Muldoon, Sharon Olds,
Fiction: Haruki Murakami, Claire Keegan, Danielle McLaughlin, Yiyun Li, James Lasdun,

A truly international readership and contributor base with one third coming from North America, one third from our home country Ireland and one third from the rest of the world.

Be sure to send your best work. Not everyone does. Not everyone sends work in a finished state. Since our move back from web publication to print publication the editorial bar for Southword is much higher. Submissions are rejected in the first instance by clumsy use of language and bad craft - only after that particular hurdle is passed do we give consideration to how interesting your subject matter is. That elusively difficult thing to define - original voice - is also very important.

Writing which cares about language, which is aware that language is an artistic medium and not merely a conveyance for ideas or opinions. Writing from an individual's perspective, not an Everyman perspective. Writing composed by someone who shows signs of having read widely.

They send too many individual pieces at once. They ignore word limits in fiction.

I don't read cover letters in most cases until after I select the writing. With 30 poems to choose from over 3000 poems submitted, the more time spent reading actual submissions rather than cover letters is all to the better.

If a piece shows bad craft, bad use of language, or if the piece is obviously written by someone who does not read other writers (an amazing number) I might skim through the rest to be doubly sure I'm correct in choosing not to finish reading all of it. The most difficult decisions centre around writing which is competent but just isn't as good as other submissions competing for the limited space on offer, perhaps because the subject matter isn't interesting enough, the voice not individual enough or the piece does not fit with the majority of other pieces already accepted and shaping a particular issue. I have to read those pieces all the way through, sometimes several times, before deciding if they are to be rejected.

As the publisher I like to find myself in agreement with the choice of the fiction editor - I have never rejected such choices yet.

Southword journal is only one of many projects of ours at the Munster Literature Centre. We also produce literary festivals, residencies, fellowships, competitions, websites, a chapbook publication series, workshops, seminars etc.

Most pieces I accept unedited, some involve many tweaks. I wish we had the resources to offer more hands-on editing which could lift a good, publishable short story to a higher, exceptionally achieved level.

We nominate for the Forward Prizes. We have lapsed in nominating for the Pushcart in recent years but we will recommence. Our work has also been selected for Best American Poetry anthologies.