Editor Interview: GossamerWight Literary Magazine

Uncanny prose and poetry!

Revenant Journal. Pacific Northwest Gothic. Seaside Gothic. Baltimore Gothic. Weird Horror. Dissections: The Journal of Contemporary Horror. We're always on the hunt!

GossamerWight publishes writers – those who submit stories and poetry to us for inclusion in our quarterly digital anthologies. Every writer whose submitted work we accept is a favourite, because they have all achieved a high standard of writing excellence!

Although our website content and quarterly anthologies feature dark and unconventional stories and poetry with an uncanny twist, that does not set us apart, per se, from others who publish similar material; that said, who we are as a team of editors (and what we therefore contribute) is a distinct point of difference compared to other literary magazine teams, as their team structure is to ours. Why? Because our mix fits for what we, as a team, bring to the enterprise with our individual knowledge and skills backgrounds in academia and other lived-life experiences, just as it does for other lit mags.
But for a more detailed response, here are three factors that stand out for us in what our magazine brings to the publishing world, or we have planned:
(1) A sharp, defined editorial niche – dark and unconventional storytelling/poetry. We explicitly position ourselves around horror, 'New?Weird,' supernatural, speculative, dystopian, fantasy, and Gothic works. By carving out this eerie, genre-bending space, we offer writers whose voices don’t fit mainstream literary journals a dedicated home.
(2) A community-first infrastructure. Multiple entry points, newsletter sign-up, member accounts (planned), a store, and a submissions portal encourage ongoing engagement beyond a single issue.
(3) Multimedia-enhanced publishing, e.g., the ability to embed podcasts, videos, and audio narration alongside text (some planned). Multimodal storytelling would expand our reach, attracting listeners wishing to move from a traditional text-only format, also giving contributors extra creative avenues (e.g., the possibility for narrated flash fiction), differentiating us from pure print-or-web-text magazines and reinforcing our 'uncanny' brand identity.

Be brazen and trust in self! All have an equal opportunity to submit one or more pieces of their work for publishing consideration in our anthologies, regardless of where they are in their writing journey.
Acceptance is based solely on the merits of what is submitted, adherence to the current anthology edition theme, and our published guidelines.
Submission opportunities are open to all: lay writers, academic, and other professional writers alike. Our editorial ethos embraces the full gamut of lived experiences, ensuring that diverse, underrepresented, and marginalised voices also find a home with us. In summary, we encourage submissions from all without condition, except those stipulated within our general and theme-specific anthology guidelines.

Writers often focus on the creative side of their work and forget that literary and other online magazines have concrete expectations for how a piece should look when it lands in the editor’s inbox. Here's my quick submission checklist for writers:
(1) Read all guidelines thoroughly – keep them open while you format.
(2) Provide contact information exactly as requested.
(3) Set font, size, spacing, and margins exactly as requested.
(4) Double-check word/line/page count (exclude title page and bio).
(5) Save as .doc., .docx, or .pdf, and name the file Lastname_Title.doc/.docx/.pdf
(6) Preserve poetry line breaks (PDF is safest).
(7) Add an author bio (up to 100 words).
(8) Note whether simultaneous submissions are permitted.
(9) Attach any permissions for quoted material.
(10) Complete every field in the submission portal (if used).
(11) Respect the response timeline before following up.
Writers who show such care in submitting are being respectful, enhancing their chances of success.

Ooh... déjà vu!
Writers often focus on the creative side of their work and forget that literary and other online magazines have concrete expectations for how a piece should look when it lands in the editor’s inbox. Here's my quick submission checklist for writers:
(1) Read all guidelines thoroughly – keep them open while you format.
(2) Provide contact information exactly as requested.
(3) Set font, size, spacing, and margins exactly as requested.
(4) Double-check word/line/page count (exclude title page and bio).
(5) Save as .doc., .docx, or .pdf, and name the file Lastname_Title.doc/.docx/.pdf
(6) Preserve poetry line breaks (PDF is safest).
(7) Add an author bio (up to 100 words).
(8) Note whether simultaneous submissions are permitted.
(9) Attach any permissions for quoted material.
(10) Complete every field in the submission portal (if used).
(11) Respect the response timeline before following up.
Writers who show such care in submitting are being respectful, enhancing their chances of success. Is there an echo in here?

We take an relaxed approach at GossamerWight. So:
* we encourage casual cover letters (by which we mean emails).
* previous publication credits are of interest to us and are good promotional material for our submitters when they also...
* provide us with their third-person bio, because we include bios in anthology releases.
* the inspiration for their submitted piece(s) is something we also like to know, which may well be included in an anthology release.
* we need to know whether what they are sending us is a similtaneous submission.

The GossamerWight editorial team read every piece of prose and poetry to the very end, even when we suspect, within the first several paragraphs or stanzas, that the piece is unlikely (or categorically not) going to be a fit for the current anthology theme. It is the professional thing to do.

The GossamerWight Submission Process Overview:
(1) Acknowledgment: we confirm receipt of all submissions received during the open window. Because our editorial team is small, we do not provide feedback for unsuccessful entries beyond notifying the outcome.
(2) Review Stages:
(a) Initial Screening (after the window closes): we reject all submissions that did not meet our guidelines.
(b) Phase Two: the editorial team reads and discusses the remaining submissions; we create a longlist, from which we agree a shortlist.
(c) Phase Three: we make our selections from the shortlist to be included in the quarterly anthology.
(3) Publication Notification: We email all successful submission authors, then those who have been unsuccessful; make the new anthology issue live on our website; email site users who have opted-in to receive marketing updates; announce the anthology publication on our social-media channels.
(We may, at times, expedite our response and selection decisions.)

I'm semi-retired and am self-employed, so I mostly get to spend each day as I like!
Any day of the week can be a work day or a rest day for me. Within such an arrangement, I prioritise the most urgent needs / tasks of the business (magazine and anthologies) first, and work through the pecking order. Flexibility is key. So is downtime and rest! Almost without exception I'll always take a half-hour power nap in the afternoon, if working at home.
Submissions: I read each submission as it comes in (be it prose or poetry) as a first pass, then refer it on to my fellow editors (prose to a fellow prose editor, and poetry to our poetry editor). We then convene at set points to discuss all submissions, regardless of type, before making our final choices within the first three weeks of the third month of each quarter.

In our acceptance letter to successful submitters, we state "we reserve the right to make minor editorial changes to your piece before publication, under the terms of our General Submission Guidelines. We will send you screenshot proofs of your story and bio pages before we go to publication, so you may check and sign off on these."
Even before we reach the acceptance stage, If we find a submitted piece is strong, but that it requires attention from the author in set places – perhaps even a little rewriting – then we tell them so, pointing out what we have found and our proposal for what they might do to enhance their piece; ultimately the choice is theirs, but it is also our of course! We may still accept a piece as is, but could also finally reject it, if it remains unchanged despite our recommendations.

Yes, to six: Pushcart Prize; Best of the Net; Forward Prizes for Poetry; Best Small Fiction; Best Microfiction; PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story prize for Emerging Writers.

* Tip jar donations.
* Website merchandise sales.
* Direct from my pocket as founder and editor-in-chief of GossamerWight Literary Magazine and Press!
* We do not ask those submitting prose and / or poetry for a fee, but neither do we pay contributors, as we do not have the funds! We do, at least, provide each successful contributor with a complimentary copy of the anthology in which their work appears (PDF and ePub) and give them a 15% discount voucher for use in our online store... plus we advertise their work on our social media channels.
* And, our nominations are one of the most direct forms of advocacy we, as editors, can offer our writers.

On our website and on our social media channels: LinkedIn, Bluesky, and Substack.