Editor Interview: EPOCH Magazine

Literature!

DIAGRAM, 128 Lit, Cupboard Pamphlets, The Arkansas International, Short Story Advent Calendar

We don't really have favorites, though we have a few regular contributors we love. We have a history of debuting new writers, and since taking over the magazine a few years ago, I've made more of a commitment to writing in translation. I fear that singling out particular writers and artists could give people a wrong impression about our style and taste; we're really open to anything. Artists should check out our archive of cover images to see what kind of thing we've liked in the past.

We have a long history we're trying to honor—but also, anywhere from 50% to 75% of the magazine is coming from slush, and is decided upon by our cohort of student editors. So, an ideal issue, to us, is a mix of tradition and experimentation.

Please read it! People send us all kinds of things that even a cursory glance at one issue would inform them are inappropriate. You can buy a high-quality PDF of any issue from the past couple of decades from our shop page, and if you truly don't have the $7 to buy one, email via the site and ask for a comp copy. I will send you one.

A well-thought-out, professionally presented thing that we have never seen before. By which I mean, pursue your strangest ideas, but take them seriously enough to bring them to some level of refinement.

We accept, and will always accept, snail mail subs, but please send a SASE! I get a lot of angry emails from people who never heard back from us, and no SASE is usually why. We clear the decks completely every cycle, and pride ourselves on not making writers wait forever.

I can't speak for my assistant editors, but for the first pass of our ~1500 submissions each cycle, I don't even glance at anything besides the work. I'm always on the lookout for familiar names, so that I can at least send a nice note to a former contributor, but otherwise go straight for the submission itself. Previous publications are irrelevant to us outside of our contributors' bio page, but we do love publishing a debut, so please tell us if you haven't published before. In the event that we do like the piece, it will be especially gratifying to know that.

Again, speaking only for myself, if I get past page one, the piece usually goes to round 2 for a more thorough read. But most subs, I don't get any farther than that, and I instruct my assistant editors to be ruthless on the first pass as well. If page one is full of clichés, syntactical and usage errors (as opposed to experiments in form), or general dullness and over-familiarity, I do not assume it will magically improve on page 2. I'm also leery of online advice to start with a splash to keep me reading...that kind of showboating is often an even bigger cliché than the stuff you're trying to avoid. Be specific, surprising, and true to your own vision, however, and don't take the rejection personally...we're just one small group of people with a particular kind of taste. Your stuff may delight other editors.

Each accepted piece gets four passes: first round slush, second round careful read with the genre editor, third round ranking, and then, finally, me reading everything once more to make sure it meets my standards. (Generally, I'm just vetting my editors' decisions, though; I tend to trust their judgement even if the finalists are not entirely to my taste. I haven't defied them yet!) Then there will be a detailed line edit to any accepted prose, and occasional notes for poets as well.

I edit prose very thoroughly, both with broad notes and a detailed line edit. There's also a final proof and copyedit with our production editor, Heidi Marschner. Sometimes writers push back a little at my more proscriptive suggestions, and that's fine—the writer has the final say. But, as a writer, there is nothing I find more flattering and generous than a strong edit, and most of our contributors seem to feel the same. Poetry, I think, is a little more take-it-or-leave-it, but if my poetry editors ask me to convey editorial notes to an accepted poet, I do so. Again, good writers tend to be open to changes, even if they don't ultimately accept them.

We submit to all the annual anthologies!