Editor Interview: Hidden Peak Press

Resonating, poignant work

Poetry Daily, Graywolf Press, American Short Fiction, Paris Review, Colorado Review, Kenyon Review

Charles Simic, T.R. Hummer, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Carver, Dianee Seuss, G.C. Waldrep, Stephen Dunn

We publish engaging, relatable poetry, short fiction and flash fiction that has numerous layers and hits the reader in unexpected ways. Also, our presentation of the work is top notch via the photos we put with each piece in our weekly spotlight as well as our bi-annual digital magazine, Hidden Peak Review.

Read through our author spotlight to get a sense of what our style is.

Poetry that is concise and leaves you thinking at the end of the poem, and likely wanting more. Short fiction and flash fiction about everyday life that cuts to the core of our complicated emotional being, and the give-and-take involved in daily living.

They often send rhyming poetry (we never publish rhyming poetry and usually do not publish form poetry) or send fiction that tells, instead of shows.

No, we do not care about cover letters. Previous publication credits are nice but it comes down to the quality of the work submitted, so prior experience is not a considering factor in publication.

For poetry, where we ask for 5 poems in a submission, usually we can tell if the poet will be a fit for our site by the end of the second poem. If we are engrossed with all five poems, acceptance is likely. For fiction, the first couple pages of a story will tell us if we want to keep reading/accept.

Both our poetry editor and fiction editor usually read pieces that are under serious consideration multiple times and there are internal conversations about the piece before it is accepted.

We check our inbox daily and are usually quick to respond to submissions (usually within one week for poetry, and within two months for fiction).

Very little edits. Almost 100% of the pieces we accept are very well proofread. If they're not, we usually reject. For poetry, we do almost no editing, unless we find something like a typo or grammatical error. Short stories get more line/copy editing for errors and those are corrected prior to publication.

Yes, we nominate six pieces annually for the Pushcart Prize.