Editor Interview: California Quarterly

CQ features great poetry

We appreciate Quill and Parchment, are advertised by Poets and Writers and have interacted with Altadena Poetry Review, The Rattle, Spectrum, and other local CA magazines.

We have favorite poets we publish, some on our own Board - Ambika Talwar, Alice Pero, Nicholas Skaldetvind, Bory Thach, Konrad Wilk, to mention a few. Among American poets that we've published, we like Raphael Block, Jeff Graham, Marlene Hitt, Ellice Jeon, Angelika Quirk, Livingston Rossmoor, Christine Candland, Charlene Langfur, Donna L. Emerson, John Schneider, R.G. Cantalupo, Doreen Beyer, Deborah Bachels Schmidt, Carolyn Jabs, Deborah P Kolodji, William Scott Galasso, and many others. We also like our contest judges, including Anna Maria Mickiewicz, Robert Hammond Dorsett, and Frank Iosue. We publish artwork on the covers, recent favorites are Janusz Maszkiewicz, Andrzej Kolodziej, Ambika Talwar, Beverly M. Collins (photos), Toti O'Brien, and Diane Lee Moomey.

We seek to publish California poets, and to focus on positive, inspirational, and inspired poetry of technical and linguistic mastery, devoid of platitudes, banalities, and silly ideologies, like climate change and other such nonsense. We avoid political themes and seek to celebrate the richness and diversity of human life, with a full scope of emotions and experiences, as well as the joy and beauty of the natural world. If you write rants, screeds, and complaints, please do not submit to us. But if you want to commemorate greatness, describe inspiration, especially with art and the natural world, and if you fondly remember the past, think of the California Quarterly. We cherish the mastery of language, include translations, and focus on the Platonic trinity of beauty=goodness=truth. The issues are not strictly thematic, though we like seasonal themes of gratitude, harvest, spring awakening, motherhood, oceans, and forests.

We do not accept simultaneous submissions. Each editor is solely responsible for their choices received in a specific submission period, Jan-March for Issue no. 2 published in June, April-June for Issue no. 3 published in September, July-September for issue no. 4 published in December, and October-December for issue no. 1 published in March. So we are slow in responding. We prefer Submittable, though mail, and uploads to our website are also accepted. We receive about 600 poems to pick about 55-57 per issue, so we are quite selective. It is best to have poems that fit on one small page and the lines are not too long, so they do not wrap around. i.e., about 20 lines - the best length, up to 80 lines - acceptable. The other instructions were above - "absolutely no whining" (quote from Clancy Imislund of AA).

Via Submittable - on each page include name, address, email of the poet. Without names on each page of the document (one documents with up to 6 poems per quarter, do not submit separate poems), we will not review and we will automatically reject the submission. Each poem should be checked by spell-check. Themes and formats are up to the poets - prose, fixed form, free verse, sonnets, haiku, haibun are all acceptable. Poets should think of the time that the issue will appear - do not send winter poems for summer issue, will not be included... Also encouraged are translations with the original unpublished poem, or a great classic (we had ancient Chinese, Arabic, and Latin translations recently).

They submit garbage with profanities, drug/alcohol abuse, or smut. Automatic rejection. Occasional f-bombs may be appropriate, but regular use indicates a definite lack of talent. They submit without including names and addresses and emails and then their work cannot be reviewed. They submit and then withdraw, even though it clearly says in submission instructions that we do not accept simultaneous submissions.

We are not interested in cover letters, bios, or any background information. Only the poems - they speak for themselves. Each editor has a different taste and picks what they love, so the issues are quite diverse. We have a Buddhist, Catholic. and an agnostic among us, and we also invite guest poets, such as Deborah P Kolodji who filled her issue with various haiku, haibun and related genres.

Poems are short, we read them to the end.

When the Editor and the Managing Editor seriously disagree about a submission (political content), the matter might be brought up for the whole CSPS Board to discuss. Typically, the Editor has the last word and prevails, the Board does not like to interfere in editorial decisions. Sometimes poets are asked to reformat their poems so they look good on our small pages 5.5 by 8.5 inches, esp. they are asked to cut long lines in half. Some poets disagree and withdraw, acting all offended. But we do not reduce font size to 8 from 11! Sometimes proofreaders want poets to change details to improve grammar, these are suggestions (apart from typos), and not mandatory. The poem may remain unchanged if the poet explains why.

Each editor works on one issue per year. They access Submittable, download the files, print and review poems, they also receive scans of mailed submissions and copies of emailed submissions. The process of elimination of bad poems is different for each Editor. One of our Editors goes through everything printed three or four times, gradually reducing the number of poems. Then he picks best poems that are certain to be included and those that are optional. If there are not enough good poems left after these rejections, the Editor may invite a poet to submit; there are maybe 2-3 of invited poems per issue, if any. The poems are organized in the template, poets are notified of acceptance, and the layout process commences. Longer poems and translation start on even pages. Sometimes there could be two short poems per page. Once the poems, Table of Context and Index are ready, the Managing Editor adds news briefs section and the issue is sent to poets for proofreading. Once they approve, our proofreaders check again, and the corrected issue goes to the poets for the second time. Sometimes third proofs are sent if there are layout or content issues.

We proofread and correct typos, some grammar issues. The poets have to approve all changes and edits, and their argument against suggested changes is final - the poem is published as they want it. But if they do not approve edits and changes suggested and we cannot accommodate their instructions, the poem will not be published. We also check for plagiarism, we recently had a plagiarist that submitted to multiple journals in the past but luckily was caught by our Editor - so we notified Submittable and they got blocked from the platform.

We nominate 6 poems per year to the Pushcart Prize - for small press and journal publications.

We have membership dues and donations, annual budget about $4,400 for printing and mailing. We break even without any funds for paid staff. We do not receive any grants from anywhere, remaining independent.

We have a website and a blog, as well as a Facebook page. We pay for ads in the Poets and Writers magazine. We send emails to about 500 people every quarter.