Editor Interview: Qwerty Magazine

Work that lingers.

We love those journals and magazines whose presence raises the bar for contemporary Canadian (and international) literature: ARC Poetry, The Antigonish Review, Canthius, The Capilano Review, Contemporary Verse 2 (CV2), Cosmonauts Avenue, The Fiddlehead, filling Station, Geist, Grain, The Malahat Review, Minola Review, Plenitude, Prairie Fire, PRISM International, The Puritan, Riddle Fence, Room, SubTerrain, and Vallum, among others.

Qwerty is a magazine operated by the English graduate students at the University of New Brunswick. Everything we do is a labour of love, sure, but it is also our attempt to know and understand the culture of which we art a part, literary and otherwise. Our work at the magazine is supported by the critical and creative work we produce in the classroom and in workshop spaces, and the magazine is better for it. We are, each year, settling into new skin, learning how to marry the magazine's past with a rich, respectful present and an innovative future. I think former Managing Editors Rebecca Salazar and Katie Fewster-Yan said it best in their double issue (33-34) editors' note: "A student-run journal is a bit like the flashy young underdog at a dog show. Though we may not have been wrung through anything called a suitable training regimen prior to competition, we make up for this in ambition, and drool, and our highly-refined taste in bones."

Despite its 20-odd years in existence, Qwerty is, ultimately, a youthful magazine. We're always looking for work that defies convention and expectation. We love enthusiasm and concise cover letters. We particularly encourage submissions by writers and artists from intersectional and under-represented communities.

The ideal Qwerty submission accompanies a short cover letter with a third-person author bio and updated mailing address. It's well-formatted and proofread and a joy to read—and re-read.

We often get cover letters wherein Qwerty is spelled "Querty," and we also get cover letters addressed to other journals or previous editors.

Our editorial board does care about (concise) cover letters and third person bios, but they are by no means indicators of a person's technical skill or craft. Cover letters can be either mere transmission notices ("Please see attached...") or used for context, telling readers *a little* about the submission. Third person bios are whatever writers and artists want them to be. We want our contributors to represent themselves as they want to be seen and known, whether that means a one-line bio or something much longer.

All submitted work is read in-full (which is not to say we don't form opinions about the work much earlier on in our reading of it). Writers and artists take the time to submit their work to us, and out of respect for them and their process(es), we give their work full consideration.

It's actually quite rare that Qwerty edits its accepted submissions. There are always slight line edits (an em-dash here, a comma there) and format considerations, but all things considered, we accept work that is publication-ready.