Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.
A: "A breath of fresh air."
Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?
A: A magazine with high standards, rich in poetry, fellowship, inspiration, with regular articles about better writing. We do not publish material that is crude, dark, or negative in tone.
Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?
A: Say something unique! We toss cliche and greeting card type poems. Use a fresh perspective about your topic in a positive way. Do your homework on grammar, spelling, (rhyme and meter if it’s a rhyming poem) and flow if it’s free verse.
Q: Describe the ideal submission.
A: It has date, name, and address on each page, and is neatly typed without errors in spelling and grammar. It has something meaningful to say in a unique way.
Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?
A: They submit too many poems too often. Bear in mind we publish only four issues a year. Very often the seasonal material does not arrive in time.
Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?
A: I like brief bios. I judge each poem on its own merit. A long list of credits does not impress me if I do not like the poem.
Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?
A: I can usually tell with the first four lines whether the poem is acceptable or not. If it's bad writing I don't bother to read the whole poem.
Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?
A: In addition to being well written, I ask: does it fit the standards of the magazine, do I have too many other similar submissions, do I have space in the proper issue, and will my readers enjoy it.
Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?
A: I try to read submissions every few days, while working on the planning and formatting of the next issue. I usually process submissions in the order they are received. If other responsibilities are taking up my time, my response will take longer than usual.
Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?
A: I prefer email submissions because they do not require scanning or retyping, nor the use of paper, postage and a trip to the post office.
I think we should consider whatever makes the work load easier, but I do not like electronic or POD publishing because I like to read an actual paper book myself instead of reading something off the computer.
Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?
A: We edit the poem according to its style, e.g. if the entire poem is without capital letters or punctuation we do not alter that. However, we look for consistency in punctuation so we may add a comma, period, capitalization, etc. where appropriate. Of course we correct spelling errors or the wrong word. e.g. "it's" where it should be "its." In our guidelines we reserve the right to make edits, so we do not normally provide a proof to the author. However, occasionally we may ask an author to approve a suggested change of a word or phrase before we publish the poem.