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Editor Interview: La Piccioletta Barca

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Insightful prose & verse.

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: Slightly Foxed, Modern Poetry in Translation, London Review of Books, Poetry, Stepa Magazine.

Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?

A: Anna Akhmatova, Raymond Carver, Yasunari Kawabata, Milan Kundera, C.P. Cavafy

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: Two things. Firstly, the fact that each issue is centred around a stimulus (e.g. a painting, a comic strip, an excerpt) is quite unique and it is always interesting to see how different people use different ideas and genres to approach this common basis. Secondly, we invite our contributors to experiment, and as such, our archive is a melting pot of styles and genres, featuring from Noh theatre performance to comics, from photo-essays to original compositions, along with more conventional, but equally intriguing pieces of prose and verse.

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: Read through multiple pieces from the same issue in our archive to understand how different contributors choose to interact with our stimuli. By doing this, you will attain a better idea of how to construct and link your own submission to future stimuli, as well as how liberal (thematically/formally) such links might be.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: For us, the ideal submission is a piece on which the passion and the genuine interest of the creator are reflected, a piece that one reads or sees and feels that it has a life of its own. And perhaps, a piece that inspires something to the audience so that they are, too, encouraged to experiment with and explore the intricacies of thought.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: We are often sent pieces that quite clearly do not fit with the style or voice of the magazine. However, the implication of this is not to artificially constrain your artistic voice to conform with our style, but rather, to make sure that our magazine is the right fit for your writing.

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: Nothing at all. We only look at the piece itself, since we do not believe that its value is measured by where this person has studied, worked, or published.

Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: We always do our best to read through the whole submission, especially when the submission is poetry or short prose. In the case of multiple pieces sent in a single submission (e.g. multiple poems sent together) we make sure to read all the pieces, even if we feel that the first few might not be a good fit. For example, there have been quite a few instances where we have accepted only the fourth or fifth poem from a group of five.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?

A: We trust our contributors and if they say that something is finished, we treat is as such. Of course, we do have a team of readers that go through the piece before publication to make sure that no minor, unintended errors of grammar or formatting exist. If there is a more substantive comment, we always discuss it with the contributor himself/herself and always expect his/her consent before changing anything.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: Given our incredibly fast-turnaround times (48-hours for every submission) efficient communication is key. Our editors first read through all the new submissions individually on the day that they are sent, and assign one of three labels: Accept, Decline or Uncertain. In the cases where all the editors agree on a piece being accepted or declined, we proceed accordingly without further discussion. In the cases where opinions are mixed, we discuss our differences on the following day (second-day from the submission). If we are still at odds, we vote, and the majority's decision holds.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: La Piccioletta Barca has been a child of modern technologies - we are an online magazine, our submissions come from electronic platforms, while our promotion also takes place through social media and online social networking services. And without those modern technologies, our 'little boat' would have to sail rougher seas, but have a less original sailing, since the opportunities given by new technologies have contributed to the shaping of our identity. The fact that we are publishing online means that we can avoid printing costs and as such, avoid paywalls, reaching a wider audience, while at the same time, we have the ability to e.g. include videos and recordings, which would be impossible if printed and has been a defining feature of the voice of the magazine. Furthermore, online submissions and promotions means that we can interact with people from all over the world, which in numbers, is translated into having people from 102 countries visiting our website, counting more than 2,500 views each month.

Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?

A: Due to the fast-turnaround times and frequent publications, we do not provide substantive editing for pieces in our monthly issues. If we do change anything, it will most likely be any grammatical discrepancies or typos. These are sent over to the author for approval prior to publication.
We do however engage in substantive editing for the pieces sent to 'The Thread', our biweekly column for essays, and have a dedicated editor that gives comments and feedback to accepted authors. There are often multiple drafts that are sent back-and-forth between editor and submitter before publication.

Q: Do you nominate work you've published for any national or international awards?

A: Not yet, but it is one of our next projects, since we are now gathering information on national and international awards that would be of interest to our contributors.