Editor Interview: Fahmidan Journal

Literary Excellence!

We value Harbor Reviews' work as well as that of publications and literary enterprises like Acropolis Journal & The Poetry Question for their inclusive work and thought provoking publication of poetry and, for the latter, reviews!

We don't have favourites but rather favourite qualities. These include, bold writing that has a strong sense of direction and a powerful word-economy not one that is overly simplistic or mundane. We also believe that accessibility should not mean weakness of diction but rather strength of meaning and clarity of authorial intent.

Fahmidan Journal is serious about diversity in action. We don't believe in the tokenistic inclusion of minorities but believe instead, in publishing the writing of all who submit their very best to us. We often find ourselves publishing the writing that those currently in control of the literary world, consider too deep, too non-western, too difficult and frank in a literary community saturated with the same voices getting the same prizes and the same aegism that permeats this community. We don't care if you're 18 or 85, we care that your writing is meaningful, punchy and makes us want to read more and more!

Be bold, be frank and always consider depth of authorial intent. We want to hear about your niche cultural experiences or even your multilingual musings. Send us writing that you've struggled to get published or writing that was deemed too bold in the western literary world because Fahmidan is global and driven by true Diversity in Action.

1. Considers and applies our submission guidelines.
2. Has a brief cover letter if any as this does not factor into our submission decision.
3. Timely communication when withdrawing pieces.
4. A well formatted submission document!

Sometimes, submitters hyper-fixate on 1 or 2 errors. We're human just like you and are not going to judge you for a mistake or two! But being mindful and even sending a correction check in email is always appreciated!

Cover Letters should be simple if even included. A simple 'Thanks for considering my submission' means a lot to us as we want to focus our energy on your submission!

We generally read each piece a few times between readers/editors from its start to its end. Though I am not always reading submissions directly, when I do, I re read packets 2-3 times whilst being conscious of our 25 day response time guarantee.

Our readers will vote and then our editors read through and decide what pieces should be shortlisted on the recommendation of the readers. Then during our shortlist reading period, our editors will read through alongside myself and then we decide on the 6-7 pieces we accept per quarter.

Short & sweet answer: A lot of admin and reading.
Long answer: My day includes reading pieces, processing feedback, filling in lots of forms, communicating with our staff of approx 20, planning events and our newsletters via Substack and working on new offerings from Fahmidan! I'd say I spend approximately 20 hours a week on Fahmidan currently though this can vary between 10-30 depending on workload.

We do not believe in accepting pieces that need many edits in our opinion. We believe that we should publish writing that is as true to authorial intent as possible and with this in mind, the onus of edits rests with the author during the few weeks post-acceptance in that we believe that writers know best. We do offer editing suggestions sometimes, but this is rare!

We nominate for Pushcart & Best of the Net and hope to expand our award nominations in the coming year!