Editor Interview: Pulsebeat Poetry Journal

Poetry full of music

The Lyric, Blue Unicorn, Tar River Poetry, The Orchards Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken, Snakeskin

Of the poets of the past, I'm most drawn to Carl Sandburg, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robinson Jeffers, Weldon Kees, and Philip Larkin.

The focus on musical verse, and openness to longer rhyming and blank verse poems.

Obviously read a few poems from back issues to get a sense of editorial preferences. It's all online and free.

I like to receive a full submission of five poems, showing variety and some evidence that the poet has looked at the journal and/or read the guidelines. If I get only one poem, or three or four all the same, it makes it less likely that I will find something I like.

The guidelines ask for poems full of music, using natural words in natural order. I sometimes receive submissions with refrigerator magnet word jumbles or prose poems, which are poor fits.

I like to know something, out of curiosity, if only where they're from and what they do for a living.

I don't regard submissions as a burden or a chore--they are the reason the journal exists, and I am grateful for every one I receive. I read every submission at least twice, once shortly after I receive it and once seven to ten days later, making notes in my tracking spreadsheet each time. I learned in my engineering career to revisit important decisions over a period of days, since snap judgements are often incorrect. After the second reading I usually have a decision in mind, which I communicate a few days later. In less clear cases I may read the submission a third or fourth time and communicate a decision after about three weeks.

None. It's a one-clown circus.

Editing is not a full time job. I work on the journal every morning for a couple of hours, reading submissions and taking care of correspondence. The rest of my day is devoted to my own writing and other bad habits. There are about two weeks of more intense activity when issues come out, since I send out proofs and have to paste everything into my issue template on Wordpress. In general I enjoy the work.

When I started the journal I would sometimes suggest changes to poems prior to acceptance, often in clumsy manner, but I eventually realized that didn't accomplish much except to irritate the poet involved. Now I fix typos but otherwise use poems as received. I send proofs to the contributors for approval prior to posting the issue.

Not at present.