Editor Interview: Rough Diamond Poetry Journal

various poetry

There are so many publications we admire. What we admire most is those publications that celebrate their writers and aren't bio obsessed! Anyone who gives new writers a chance is good with us!

Our favourite poets include Mary Oliver, Kim Moore, Rebecca Goss and Louise Gluck.
Since we've began publishing we've found writers whose work we just absolutely love and will read any poem they've written such as Emily Adamek, Carrie Penrod and Adam Chabot.

We literally do look for the diamond in the rough!
I've always loved poetry and literature but I think we can get so bogged down with pedantic perfection of spelling, punctuation and grammar - we don't focus on this. We look for the rawness in the theme or the language of a poem.
There is not just one type of poem that we publish, we aim to have a variety of different poems and different poets whether they write in free verse, haiku or prose poetry.
At Rough Diamond we love the untouchable subjects and the taboo. The seeing of beauty in the obscene and horrific!

Keep it simple!
We know how difficult it can be sending out submissions and knowing what to say to particular publications. We just want to see your poetry. We asked for a third person bio but we never read these until after we've decided whether we're going to accept your work.
If you submit to us don't think any subject is off limits! We love the dark, the dirty and disgusting as well as just gorgeous language.
Biggest piece of advice is don't send us pro right wing stuff. Racist, fascist, sexist, homophobic stuff goes against everything I believe in. Definite no no!

The ideal submission cuts language down to its purest form and hits us in the gut. That's so unbelievably vague I know!
Let me explain... (or try to!)
just give us an original way of looking at something!
Our ideal submission could come in many different shapes and sizes, try not to overthink it!

We try to keep our submission guidelines as basic as possible but sometimes these are overlooked.
We ask for poems to be submitted in the body of an email.
We also ask that poems don't exceed 40 lines.

If you want to say a quick hello in your email go for it! But we genuinely don't mind either way. Feel free to send us your poems and then a very quick third person bio.
We care about whether your poem packs a punch as opposed to how many publication credits you have.

We always read every submission fully. Whether we accept or decline we know that you have taken the time and care to send us your submission and we hold that dear to us.

When we're making final decisions about accepting poems we often go back and forth reading and rereading! We pick the poems that stay in our heads and hearts.

My favourite thing in the world is to read submissions. To sit there with an open inbox and poems to just pop up for us to read - what's not to love!
We try to read submissions as quickly as possible but sometimes life has other plans. I tend to be more active reading and replying to submissions on a weekend (particularly a Sunday when my kids aren't here!)
Before you receive a response from us we've probably read your submission 2 or 3 times before we make a decision.

We try not to edit too much at all really. Most of the time the submissions we receive are obviously very carefully edited, drafted, and redrafted by the writer themselves. If we ever do want to change lines or words in a poem the poet has to approve this, we do not make any changes without the say so of the writer.

At the moment we don't nominate but we are wanting to nominate for best of the net and the pushcart prizes in the next few years.
We're also looking to start out very own poetry competition soon so watch this space!