Editor Interview: shoegaze literary

dreamy, distorted lit

We admire both the work of various print and digital magazines that we feel push the boundaries, both magazines that are currently running and ones that are no longer with us. An incomplete list: Cake Zine, Angel Food, Peach Mag, n + 1, Lux Magazine, Joyland, Shadowbanned, Caterpiller, Titmouse, Frank, and many many others.

Another incomplete list: Sheila Heti, Marlowe Granados, Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, T Kira Madden, Jamie Hood, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Grace Byron, Sophie Kemp, Stephanie Wambugu, Kimberly Johnson, Louise Gluck.

We value ourselves in having as open of a communication with our authors as we can manage. We keep in touch, answer questions, give updates on the publishing process, and support and promote their work. For us, writing is about community and we want to give into the literary community the same energy we pull from it.

We really love work that is voice driven and speaks to something new and exciting. We encourage writers to challenge themselves when submitting to us. Since we provide a theme and materials for inspiration, we want writers to feel encouraged to put themselves somewhere different and tap into that different part of themselves.

For fiction: concise, voice-driven, linguistically challenging and exciting, tight and well paced.
For poetry: new and interesting uses of language and form

We only accept one submission per writer per period, and would prefer previous contributors wait a full period to submit again!

We like cover letters, but they can look however you want them to!

Mostly we read to the end, barring a few examples where we know immediately that the piece is wrong for us.

We usually do a second reading of pieces we are unsure about, and support other team members in the reading process.

Submissions are filed to be read blindly and information on the piece is filled into an Excel spreadsheet, which is used to determine if a piece is accepted or rejected (or needs a second reading). Submissions are read in large batches, and responses are typically sent out within those batches.

We do line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. We don't make substantive editing the norm. Authors always get final approval.

We nominate for Best of the Net and Pushcart.

Self-funded! We currently have no funding. We do have a donation link on our site, but don't push donations. Because of this, we don't currently pay, but are working towards that goal.

Yes, on Instagram and through public readings and events.