Editor Interview: Mulberry Literary

Boundless work

Rewrite the Stars Review, Allium Journal, New Orleans Review, Black Fox Literary, and Same Faces Collective.

Honestly, there are too many to name! My favorite writers range from Virginia Woolf to Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Zadie Smith and V.E. Schwab. My favorite artists also include a wide range from Huang Zhong Yang to Klimt to more modern, indie artists like Mary Syring.

Unlike many online publications nowadays, Mulberry Literary does not have a theme, a niche, or a specific genre we publish. Our magazine is a home for anything and everything. We pride ourselves on publishing a large and boundless variety of work that cannot be constrained by a simple genre or name.

Send us the weird stuff. Send us your favorite pieces. Send us the stuff that's been rejected over and over by other magazines. Send us the stuff that doesn't fit in.

The ideal submission follows all of our guidelines and is not afraid to be different.

Submitters often forget to submit the form on our website beforehand, which is something we need for logging and contacting accepted creators.

Although we do include cover letters as a mandatory field in our submission guidelines, they will never make or break a submission. Same goes for lists of publications--all we focus on during our submission process is the creative work itself.

At Mulberry, we read whole pieces before rejecting or accepting work. We think that every piece of writing, whether fiction, nonfiction, hybrid, or poetry deserves our full and undivided attention before a decision is made.

Pieces are evaluated solely on their merit. We don't even care about a couple grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors so long as the piece is really, truly good.

During open submission periods, our editors read roughly (depending on genre) 15 pieces a week. At the end of each week, we all chat together over videocall to discuss our top picks. From there, we hold on to those we like, accept those we love, and let ones that didn't quite make it go.

At Mulberry, we believe the first rule of editing is "to do no harm." In editing, our utmost and only goal is the clarity of the piece. We try our hardest to change as little as possible, but copy-editing and line editing for grammar, punctuation, spelling, and/or confusing wording is our priority. A week before any issue is published, writers and artists receive an edited copy of their work. They have final say in all that we do with their piece.

As of now, we haven't had the time or ability to nominate work we have published for awards since we are an independent and relatively small-staffed magazine. We hope one day to be able to nominate our favorite artists and writers in the future.