Editor Interview: burntdistrict

Sharp, crafted writing.

Willow Springs
Beloit Poetry Journal
Iron Horse Literary Review
Sugar House Review
Los Angeles Review
Rattle

Our favorite poets are risk takers, are well-read, and are aware of their own aesthetics. Currently, some of our favorites are Steve Langan, Alex Lemon, Francesca Bell, William Trowbridge, Joanna Pearson, and Vikas Menon.

Our submissions are always open. We read quickly and respond in less than a month, often within days. We only accept work we love, that we want to read over and over, that we want to show to all of our friends. We are passionate about the poems we take on, and we take very seriously our commitment to getting them out into the world as widely as possible.

Be professional and send your strongest work.

Our ideal submission follows submission guidelines and indicates that we are dealing with a professional writer and a decent human being.

Some submitters upload each poem as a separate submission. Occasionally, we receive an unsolicited submission via e-mail. We do not read e-mail submissions from writers we don't already know.

Our decisions are based solely on the work in front of us. However, we see each submission as a potential relationship. We want to know who you are. We want to see where you’re publishing. We want to see that you are already invested in the broader literary community, that you believe in your work, and that you’re doing everything within your power to get it out in the world.

As much as we need to. Sometimes, we can tell immediately that the work is not a fit, but even in this case, we'll read at least a few lines of every poem in the submission to see if something catches our interest. The vast majority of the time, the entire submission is read through at least once.

We do not use readers. One of the editors reads every submission. Most acceptances begin when one of us comes across a poem that makes her pick up the phone to call the other and say, “you have to read this poem right now.” Most poems that reach the point of serious deliberation are read aloud several times.

Busy. We read submissions, send contracts, plan promotional events, work on layout, and try to maintain a web-presence. We also have jobs, families, lives, and writing of our own to do/revise/send out.