Editor Interview: Haight Ashbury Literary Journal

Personal and political

Poetry Pacific, Blue Light Press, Caveat Lector

Poets: Edgar Silex, Pablo Neruda, Andrena Zawinski.
Fiction: Margaret Atwood, Laura Del Fuego
art: Elaine Gerard

People in a neighborhood still read our Journal. The layout is not page by page so we can publish many poems but it is difficult to know exactly how many, and we have varying lengths. Sometimes, we are gritty but not repulsive. Because we mostly accept poems and fiction by mail we often get submissions a "little off the grid" like from prisoners, people who do not use computers, or from local street people who submit in person. The Co-Editors read everything that is submitted to us, rather than having other readers go through the initial submissions. Sometimes we have interns read the next to final selections to give us suggestions on their choices, which we can take or not. Not everything the journal publishes is the opinion of the editors being judged on the quality of the poetry, (but generally our opinions and the poems' match.)

Please don't send more material than the length of the journal (16 tabloid pages.)Don't use language that leans towards the flowery and trite. Check your spelling and grammar before submitting and submit poetry that is legible. Please only send 6 poems per 6 month period, sending more will not help you. It helps to read previous issues as we may not want to print similar themes and styles in the next issue. Please include a SASE.

The poetry strikes us as powerful, and the poem is "complete." It has images rather than really being an essay or philosophy in lines. The writer is different than the writers in previous issues. The writer relates to an interesting social or personal issue in a poetic or fictional style.

Unfortunately, we are taking longer to make decisions because we have several editors (who read everything.) While we are not ogres, we are not really friends with the writers and would like work submitted in a usual professional style. We do not use or make decisions based on bios or companies that submit for writers. We would like a name and address on every poem. We get work submitted by mail unless from overseas and keep track of the work by SASEs.

We do not use bios or take into consideration references. We think our process is democratic. We do print the city , state (and country) of the writer in the publication. We find bios interesting but they do not influence us. It is good to let us know if you are a prisoner, but not details on reason why.

We read all of the submission unless they are essays which we don't print.

We keep pieces for consideration, then have another review to finalize the issue as it is difficult to tell how many poems will be in our layout which is not one poem to a page. It also helps us to decide about poems that arrive in a several month period based on themes or uniqueness rather than making decisions based specifically on the worth of the individual poem. It's like casting a play, or an orchestra. I suppose many writers don't understand that and focus on whether we are taking their poem or story. Of course, there are poems we take no matter what else, too.

We have a lot of reading to do. We also have to raise money for the Journal. We do not use our own money, so we interact with vendors and bookstores to collect the money or ask subscribers who need to renew.. We need to send letters to accept or reject the submissions. Then, there is the typing process and taking the Journal to the layout designer and printer. We need to get illustrations and ads. We have to schedule meetings with the editors to exchange manuscripts and we all have different schedules and work hours outside of the Journal. We also have readings for the new issues.

We copy edit for spelling, and grammar and typos, but check if the writer is using an unusual spelling or grammar by choice. We proofread before the layout and after the layout. We occasionally make a suggestion to a writer on a line. We would like to receive the best and final version of the poem rather than be sent rewrites. We always check with an author if there needs to be a change (or potential change) for anything.

Some years we nominate for the Pushcart Award. The Journal itself has won some awards that I applied for both in the US and Canada. We nominate both the magazine and authors in it for various awards.