Editor Interview: Locative Magazine

New Australian Local

As an Australian publication, I admire, and am greatly indebted to, independent Australian journals such as Overland, Island, Cordite, The Suburban Review, Going Down Swinging, Debris Magazine, Mascara Literary Review, Peril Magazine and Liminal. I also particularly love small and community based journals - Swim Meet Lit Mag, Aniko Press, Babyteeth, Fondue and Written Off to name a few.

My favourites are writers who are able to meld together character and setting for emotional effect. Of the realists, I enjoy Marilynne Robinson, Tara June Winch and Truman Capote. Of the stylists, I adore Jennifer Egan, Han Kang and Kurt Vonnegut. Of the genre writers, I love Ursula K. Le Guin, Karen Russell and Kij Johnson. Of poetry, my favourites are Tracy K. Smith, Evelyn Araluen and John Ashbery and whilst I have a conflicted relationship with the so called classics, I do have a bias for Keats. But I also am constantly searching for new favourites - I love authors who are able to show me a new side of the craft I'd never considered before.

I like to think that smallness is Locative Magazine's advantage. We're run on a shoestring budget with volunteer work, and we're not contending to be the biggest and best voice in Australian literature. That means we're more keen to pick up work from authors who have never been published before, or who speak for a smaller or more niche facet of the Australian writing scene.

Be yourself, and be daring. If you have an idea that you think is a bit too ridiculous to work, give it a hot go and see what we think. We don't get a lot of submissions but we do get enough that works tend to fall into larger categories of styles and themes. It'll be more fun to try out a unique idea or concept, than to attempt to be the best version of something predictable and safe.

We're not a blind-submissions publication. It's nice to see authors be honest about their experience and previous credits. And not having any publication experience isn't necessarily a bad thing, either.

Every piece is read in full. Pieces we're considering for publication are read multiple times. I would like Locative Magazine to stay small enough that we can keep doing things this way. I'm glad to be able to give every work my full attention.

It's a piece-by-piece basis, but at times I'll want to start a conversation with an author about more substantial structural edits. I don't want authors to feel like their piece has to be polished to 100% before submitting. If there's something worthwhile there, whether it's a narrative concept, a character or a writing style, I might decide to open up an editorial process to bring out the piece's strengths. The author always gets final approval.