Editor Interview: The Phare Magazine

Life in words

Smoke Long Quarterly - full of rich, flash fiction. Myslexia as a platform for women writers and the craft of writing. Fictive Dream for its contemporary lens on the human condition and dedication to the short story. Ad Hoc Fiction publishers for it’s support of debut writers and championing of short-form fiction.

This changes all the time but having just read The Essex Serpent and Melmoth, I’m in awe of Sarah Perry’s ability to create atmosphere steeped in underlying moral complexity. The rhythm and lyricism of language that Elaine Feeney uses in her dark comic fiction, As You Were really drew me in and my old favourite, Alan Bennett, holds a special place on my bookshelf with his insight into the human condition and the ability to displace the worst of us with humour - a masterclass in characterisation.

Our core value is to publish the writing not the writer. Of course, we’re delighted to receive great work from established writers, but we also like to hear from unknown writers and from writers resident all over the world. We’ve published great work by young writers and writers from under-represented groups and minorities and would love to receive more.

Read previous issues of The Phare. It’s the only way you’ll get a feel for the type of writing we love to publish. Also, be brave – we like to read the unexpected.

One that grabs us in the first few sentences. We read so many submissions that we need it to stand out almost immediately. Also a submission that follows our guidelines, no pdf’s, no indented paragraphs or dialogue.

Submitting via the website or to the wrong email address – not following guidelines!

Nothing. It’s all about the words in front of us, not about previous accolades or publications.

We can generally tell within the first few paragraphs (flash) or the first page or two (short stories)

No additional evaluations.

Every day is different depending upon whether we’re open for submissions or not. When we’re not open for submissions we take a lot of time planning and discussing potential new services, marketing activities and social media campaigns. All our submissions are read by the senior editors and by at least one other guest reader. Work is scored, requiring a minimum score to progress to the longlist stage. We sometimes invite experienced and well-published guest editors to select the shortlist – sometimes it’s down to The Phare’s founding editors.

If an author or poet has submitted work that’s ‘nearly there’ for publication and which we would love to see published we will discuss minor edits rather than large structural changes. We do offer chargeable full editorial services via our website, separate to the submission process.

Yes, we currently nominate to the Pushcart Prize, Best Microfiction and the BIFFY top 50. We will also be nominating to the Best Small Fictions in their next submission window.