Editor Interview: The Adrift Chapbook Contest

Craft focused multi-genre

We really admire presses who are doing beautiful work with their books, from the design and marketing perspective. Presses like Copper Canyon and Black Lawrence Press choose and produce wonderful, beautiful books. We have also been watching small presses who thrive and put their hearts into the work they release, like Belle Point Press, River River Books, and Ghost Peach Press.

We publish both writing and art, but my focus is on poetry. We always try to bring our favorite writers in as judges for our contests. We have my very favorite contemporary poet, Diane Seuss, judging our current Adrift contest, and we've also had writers like Carolyn Hembree and Traci Brimhall, who we all love.

Beyond our focus on art and aesthetics (we often hire independent artists to create our covers), we also include in depth craft interviews with every piece of writing we publish. This gives the reader a look behind the scenes, making our books endlessly teachable and easily appreciated by even someone unfamiliar with poetry or literary fiction.

On a more personal level, I chose to join the Driftwood team a few years after publishing my second book, Hillbilly Madonna, with them. I admire their passion for art, and I've found them to be extraordinarily ethical (paying writers, fair and clear contracts, submitters get a book with submission fees, etc.). They also work hard and have publicists on staff who promote the books we publish, ensuring they don't just fade into oblivion. I was proud to be an author with Driftwood, and I'm even prouder to have been promoted to a managing editorial role.

People always say "send your best work," but as a writer, I know it's hard to figure out what an editor will think is best. Sending work you believe in, though, is important. Beyond that, my advice would be to be weird and take risks. Send your strangest things, the things you've crafted but aren't sure anyone will "get." Experiment and take risks. Those are the books I'm drawn to, mostly, but I also can be swayed by a strong voice and dedication to craft. It's also important to me that a writer shows some thought about organization, especially for a book or chapbook. Do not just throw your poems together, but think about the book structurally.

The ideal submission takes risks, craft-wise, and is emotionally moving or resonant. This is a difficult thing to quantify, but I prefer a nice mix of the genuine and artifice. Because we include interviews, we want submitters who are actively thinking about craft and process at the language level. I also would love to see more diverse voices and perspectives in our pool!

I can't access cover letters at all on Submittable until I send a response to the submitter. I usually then only read them if it's an acceptance. We do, however, request an acknowledgements page with our book submissions. This does not influence our choice (I've accepted books with very few publication credits!), but it can show that the writer is familiar with and engaged in the larger literary community.

We are a team of editors who are dedicated to reading all of every submission before rejecting.

For the Adrift contest, a team of editors votes on the submissions. About 10% of submissions will make it to the next round. From there, I personally will read every book and narrow the pool down to a handful of finalists, which I will send to our guest judge. Those finalists will be all given the opportunity to have a poem from their chapbook featured in our anthology, and one will win the top prize.

I'm a mother of three, a teacher, and a practicing poet, so I do my editing and reading in the little spaces between things, in the quiet of the evening, in carline, while waiting at dance class, etc. I read for what moves me, intellectually and emotionally, and I'll often flag pieces and return to them later for a deeper read. As a team, we leave notes about what we love on submissions, which helps us to see right away what drew another editor in. There is no identifiable information that we are able to see in Submittable, so every single submission is on equal footing.

We receive so many submissions that, generally, a book that is selected by the final judge is in nearly perfect condition. We value writers as artists and would never insert our personal visions on their pieces. We do, though, proofread carefully and offer suggestions. Ultimately, the author is in charge of deciding whether or not to implement the edits.