Editor Interview: Centaur

Mix of multi genre work

Wigleaf, -ette, Moon City Review, Booth, Boudin, Ghost Parachute, Bending Genres, 7x7 LA

Centaur doesn't publish the most or the most frequently. Instead, it gives a home to just a handful of pieces and writers each quarter, and then goes all in with a bookstore showing off the author's titles, recordings of them reading their work, and heavy promotion of the pieces on social media.

Please do read past issues as well as the guidelines. Then you be you!

An intimate moment written with care, creativity, and commitment.

Sometimes I get serial submitters who send pieces constantly, despite a request in declines to only submit work once every three months. It's also clear when people have not read the guidelines.

It really doesn't matter to me if the writer is established or new. I do like if people tell me their name!

I read a piece to the end, even if I am thinking it may not be right for Centaur. I often will read several times. Sometimes I will read something aloud. I am also thinking about the other pieces I have lined up for that issue. Sometimes I will accept a piece for a future issue if I think I would like more variety in the topic or tone of the writing.

I work full time, have a family, travel some, and manage Centaur alone, barring the web designer on retainer. That means I have to be organized, so I check the email box early each morning, stay on top of acceptances, declines, and correspondence, and plan each quarterly issue early so I can get the art and content in to be laid out.

I copy edit each piece and then proofread again before publication. I find substantive editing with creative writers to not always be that successful, so if a piece needs a lot of work and looks like an early draft to me, I will decline it rather than embark on editing.

Yes! This is another service I provide Centaur writers. I submit the maximum number of pieces to Best Microfiction and Best Small Fictions. It's a fun part of editing Centaur and is exciting for the writers.