The following is the September Literary Journal Editor E-Panel, with interviews of editors of another 6 great Literary Journals. There have now been 68 journals represented by their editors in these e-panels this year!
Those participating this time around are:
Melvin Sterne – Carve
www.carvezine.com
Hilda Raz – Prairie Schooner
http://prairieschooner.unl.edu/psmain.htm
Corie Feiner – Bellevue Literary Review
www.blreview.org
Dan Crocker – Controlled Burn
http://www2.kirtland.edu/cburn/
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review
www.barrelhousemag.com
Bret Lott – Southern Review
http://appl003.lsu.edu/southernreview.nsf/index
One other who was due to participate this month has seen some rough times recently, Chris Chambers, editor of the New Orleans Review recently let me know that he had relocated to a Houston apartment for a few months (of course, this was between Katrina and Rita). He plans on joining back up on a future e-panel.
Dan:
Thanks for taking some time out of what must be a busy schedule to get the word out about Literary Journals!
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
You're welcome. Thanks for putting this on.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
What's more important?
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
My pleasure.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
You're welcome!
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Hey, thanks for including us! It is a busy time -- we're wrapping up Issue 2, which will (shameless plug ahead) be available very soon at fine booksellers near you (and via our website). But we're very flattered that you thought of us.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
You’re welcome - and yes, it is an extraordinarily busy time right now, what with the hurricanes - plural - and all else happening around here.
Dan:
I know some of you took over positions and others founded their journals. What exactly led to your taking on the position you currently hold with your Literary Journal?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
They say you need two things to start a magazine: a typewriter and a resentment. I was working with a print magazine that had a rock-bottom budget and no space to print fiction, and I suggested that the budget (such as it was) might be better off spent publishing online. The staff pretty much told me, "All right wise guy. You wanna publish online, go out and start your own magazine." So I did. The other magazine, by the way, is now online. The last time I checked they even had a link to Carve.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
PRAIRIE SCHOONER was founded in 1926 at the University of Nebraska by Lowry Wimberly, an English Professor. I came to the magazine decades later to work with Bernice Slote, the third editor, as an editorial assistant then contributing editor and poetry editor. Now I'm the fifth editor in PRAIRIE SCHOONER's seventy-nine years of continuous publication. You could say I worked my way up the masthead.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
I have been a fan of the Bellevue Literary Review (BLR) since its inception. As a poet interested in healing and also reaching "non-poet" audiences, I thought, and still think, that the BLR is one of the more innovative journals out there. It is the only in the country published out of a medical department. It crosses disciplines, and therefore reaches a very wide audience. I always thank editors for reading my work, even if it was not accepted. I was at one of the BLR readings and met the poetry editor. I got to know Donna Baier Stein and after working with her on her journal, Tiferet, she mentioned that BLR was looking for Assistant Editors. I was one of their readers for a while, then went through several interviews and was lucky enough to be brought on board. I have to mention as a side note that I have submitted work to BLR in the past, but never had any of my poems accepted. Funny, huh?
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
I took the job over from Gerry LaFemina. Gerry founded the journal in 1995 (so we've recently celebrated our 10th year anniversary). I took over as editor when I was hired on at Kirtland Community College and Gerry moved on to other things. I've been the editor for four issues now.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
There were (are) four of us who started Barrelhouse. We'd all been in a writing class together in the Washington, D.C. area and, after the class was over, we continued to get together once a month or so to read each others' work and commisserate over beers. At one such meeting, Dave Housley said "Hey, I've been thinking about starting a journal. What do you guys think of that?" Personally, I thought he was drunk. But then the next time we met, he had some fancy-looking spreadsheets and lots of ideas, and things just picked up steam from there. Before Dave brought it up, I'd never really thought of starting a journal; one of the key issues for me was how we could differentiate ourselves, because there were already lots of good journals out there. We decided we wanted to be accessible to a wider audience, and bring some people into the fold who maybe didn't usually read journals. And because we were all a bit obsessed with pop culture, and didn't think that was anything to be ashamed about, we decided we wanted to publish nonfiction with a pop culture bent. To sort of unite the worlds of high and low culture.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
Believe it or not, I have always wanted to do this - to edit a journal. I started out sending stories to journals way back at the beginning of things, and have always been enamored of them - the look and feel of holding one in your hand, of being about to read brand new stuff by writers you admire and writers you haven’t yet heard of. So even all the way
back then I thought it would be cool to edit one, to be part of giving out the new work of established people and helping discover the next voice out there. As for The Southern Review job in particular, I had applied for the position the first time I saw it advertised in the fall of 2002, and then when I didn’t make the short list of people invited to come to LSU for interviews, I was sort of disappointed, but figured I just wasn’t the right person for the job. I was editing Crazyhorse at the College of Charleston, where I had been teaching for eighteen years, and was happy to be doing so - Carol Ann Davis and Garrett Doherty and I were a very close family of editors, and the job was a good one. A year later, the position at LSU was advertised again, and I didn’t apply because, well, I hadn’t made the short list last time, so how is it I might this time? Then a week or so before
Christmas of 2003 I got a call from the search committee asking if I were still interested, and I said straight out Yes! The Southern Review is one of those journals that has an incredible history, such a legacy, of finding new writers, of having been edited by the best people, of simply having an important presence on the literary landscape - I couldn’t say no. And now here I am.
Dan:
I don't know if you can hear the collective laughter over the internet, but is it safe to say you do this out of love, and it wasn't some get rich quick scheme?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
I hear the laughter just fine. If i was going to "get rich quick" I would have been retired and gone five years ago. Nothing happens quick in the world of literature, and while I sometimes feel rich (in that I have been given many unexpected friends, many great stories to read, and the intangible rewards of public service), the truth is, I am glad when we break even. Two things I like about what we do at Carve. We are not a 501(c)3 non-profit, we are self-supporting and do not take public funds. And we are also commercial/advertising free. All of us are volunteers, though hopefully we will someday be able to derive an income from what we do.
"Heretic!" you say? "We knew it!" Does anyone feel that Scribners or Doubleday or Random House ought not make a profit? I think they should and I'm glad they do. Their success keeps books circulating (though there are many questions about what publishing will look like in 20 years and who the major players will be). I would hope that someday the public will not view art as something that must depend on government handouts to survive. I believe that kind of thinking actually impedes the arts. I think there is a place in the world for a co-mingling of artistic taste and good business sense.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
That's a difficult question. Okay, well, my original annual earnings paid for my children's day care. Now the English Department pays the editor as an endowed professor, thanks to the generous endowment given by Glenna Luschei. I teach contemporary poetry and creative writing as well as edit PS.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
It's all love and also a sense of obligation. It is really important for writers to understand the editorial aspect of the literary "industry." I often say that an ex-waiter makes the best customer because they know how crazy it can get in the kitchen. It is the same with being a writer and an editor. As far as get rich quick...well, I don't really believe in that concept. I am proud to say that BLR is a very sustainable journal that works hard to get endowments and to give our writers what we can.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
Obviously out of love. Poets and short story writers -should- get rich from it, of course. Then again, if they did maybe they wouldn't have so much great stuff to write about.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
No, we totally expect to get rich. We've already sited some land for the eventual Barrelhouse Mansion, which will include a huge pool in the shape of a dollar sign, as well as a grotto. We may have to call in a few favors to get the property rezoned, but I understand it's easy enough to get those pesky "wetlands" designations removed, if you know the right people.
In all seriousness, though, of course we're doing this out of love. It's actually costing us some money, in fact. But we're working on that, and hope to be in the black soon.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
To be truthful, I didn’t do it for the money. The whole success of my writing career - the blessing of having been picked to be an Oprah author - has allowed me simply to do what I want to do, and to contribute in the way I feel most led to contribute. And that’s what editing is, really: contributing. I have been blessed, and am trying to give back in the best
way I know how. That’s why I am most excited about this job when we publish an author for the first time - this is what makes the job most worthwhile.
Dan:
In order to run a Literary Journal, do you believe you need to have knowledge of literature, or business, or some mixture of the two? Would it be helpful if more truly business astute people were involved in the running of such journals?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
If you run a journal and you publish crap, who's going to read it? And if you publish the best stuff on earth, but can't figure out how to get your work in circulation, then what's the point? I would love to have a non-literature person involved full time just to handle the business end of things. Creative minds are often not the best when it comes to filing documents, keeping records, and the myriad of droll day-to-day business tasks.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
Yes. Yes. Literary publishing is a business as we all know -- non-profit but a business. We all -- editors and writers -- fail if the bottom line is red.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
It is always important to be balanced. We have a lot of right/left brain people on staff and I think it does add a degree of professionalism. I think it is important to have some knowledge, ultimately, of both. It is important to realize that in this country, art is also part of the business world. When you think of it holistically, part of the business aspect of things is figuring out how to make the journal stand on its feet, honor writers, spread
great writing to as many people as you can, and hopefully touch lives. "Business" doesn't sounds like such a cold word when you think of it that way.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
You have to have knowledge of both to some extent. I think a lot of journals, good journals, fail because the editors have no idea what sort of blood, sweat and tears it takes to keep a literary journal going. The folks who start a literary journal certainly have a love of literature or they wouldn't bother. They seldom, me included, have a head for business. Luckily, Controlled Burn is supported through the college I work at. Still,
I've had to learn a lot more about the business side of publishing than I ever thought I would.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
In an ideal world, I suppose it's best to have a mix of all sorts of skills. But being forced into a situation where you have no choice but to figure something out is often the best way to learn. A couple years ago, I went to Spain, even though I hardly knew any Spanish (I did know, somehow, how to say "library," but this is less useful than you may imagine). Pretty soon, I realized I had to either figure out how to order lunch or just go hungry, and if I couldn't learn the words for "train" and "ticket" I may be spending the rest of my life in the station. And so I picked up those essentials pretty quick.
Before we started Barrelhouse, I didn't really know anything about marketing or advertising or accounting (except that my college offered classes in these subjects, way on the other side of campus from where we English majors were playing hacky sack and taking bong hits). But I've learned about all those things by working to get this journal off the ground. Maybe it also helps that there are four of us (seven if you count our poetry editor, Gwydion, our designer, Anastasia, and our new business manager, Dan). We all have things we're good at, so we can split up the work between us.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
Yes. I know I will sound like a Tool of the Man for saying this, but marketing is an integral part of this whole thing, and a good business mind is necessary. As an editor, I am always oriented to the word, and to the authors of those words. But I was an RC salesman in a prior life, and I have never forgotten the importance of trying to position the product we are producing “a journal” so that the most people possible will read it -
all the while full well understanding that those numbers are low to begin with. Forgive me for sounding so marketing oriented, but, well, that’s the way it is.
Dan:
Where does the funding for your journal come from? A university? Patrons? Subscribers? Fundraisers?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
Carve was initially founded with a grant from the Mary Gates Foundation at the University of Washington. But that was a one-time thing, and we've been on our own since then. Today we host the Raymond Carver Short Story Awards at Carve Magazine, and the revenue from the contest funds the magazine. Some years we might have a little left over, other years, I have to chip in out of my pocket. Depends on how much software and hardware and such we have to buy to keep on top of things.
We also publish an annual printed anthology, The Best of Carve Magazine. While this lost money for the first few years we published, we now actually derive a small income from the book. Not enough to hire a secretary, but still better than a kick in the pants. We hope that someday sales of the anthology will actually support a staff position. We ask readers to purchase the anthology in lieu of having a paid subscription for our online content. Of course, online readers have not shown themselves (yet) to be a good market for purchasing books. But the acceptance of paying for online content is growing rapidly, and in a few years, it will be the norm, not the anomaly.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
PRAIRIE SCHOONER is a program of the Department of English with the support of the University of Nebraska Press. The editor is supported by an endowment as a professor of English (and, in my case, Women's Studies and Judaic Studies). PRAIRIE SCHOONER pays a portion of the Managing Editor's salary (who is also a member of the staff of the English Department) and the full salary of our Book Series Coordinator (a half-time
position often given to a teaching assistant). The magazine also has the support of the Glenna Luschei endowment at the University of Nebraska Foundation as well as other donors. Our operating budget comes from income.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
Patrons & Subscribers.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
It comes from subscribers and from Kirtland Community College. I am very lucky that my school supports this journal and gives me complete freedom over the content.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
So far, a mix of subscribers, single-issue buyers, and fundraisers in the D.C. area. But we're working on incorporating ourselves as a non-profit, after which we'll have some other funding sources available to us (i.e ., your tax dollars).
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We are funded primarily through the university, but we are also responsible for a large part of our budget - we have what is called a self-generating account, from which are paid parts of salaries, printing, advertising, all sorts of things. This account is made up of income from subscriptions, advertising and etc., and the university estimates what will be our income from those revenue sources.
Dan:
How do you decide how many issues to publish of each issue? Does the greater percentage get sent off to subscribers?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
Copies of each issue? The online content is free and can be endless reproduced. The printed anthology is a combination of projections of sales vs. leveraging the best price possible for a print run. You know how it goes...300 copies costs XX and 500 copies costs YY. How many more will you sell if you opt for the larger run and the lower price.
End the end, however, I'm finding that sales will equal about 10% of our subscriber base.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
Most of the copies of each issue -- four each year -- go to subscribers but we have good book store exposure, too. At PRAIRIE SCHOONER we consider book store distribution as part of our publicity budget. Our print run is determined by distribution figures each quarter.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
I'd have to check on that. I know that we publish 4,000 of each issue, which is fairly large for a literary journal. We have a good subscription base and have copies in major bookstores.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
About half of my print run goes to subscribers and to contributor's copies. I use the other half for promotion. For example, I send out review copies and take copies of the journal to conferences like AWP.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Remember a couple questions back, when I mentioned how we parcel the work out between the four of us? This is one of those things, I'm afraid, that I've parceled. I know it was a bit of a guessing game on Issue 1, and we've actually had to go back and get more issues printed (which is, of course, a good sign). We used a print-on-demand company, which, if I'm understanding this correctly, allows us a bit more flexibility than we'd have with a traditional publisher (in other words, we don't need to do one big run, but can break it up into smaller runs without it costing us a whole lot extra every time they fire up the presses for us).
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
The bulk certainly goes to subscribers, but we print off a few hundred extra for single issue sales and distribution to bookstores.
Dan:
How do you get bookstores to carry your journal? Do you target independent stores, or big chains, or just regional stores?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
That is a problem I haven't solved to my satisfaction, yet. Distribution is everybody's bug-a-boo. Small Press Distribution is a non-profit that was started to help get literary magazines out to bookstores. They promptly chose to represent what they felt were the 50 best known and most successful magazines (and those LEAST in need of distribution support).
Carve is available through Amazon and Ebsco, but 99% of our sales are direct through our website. It seems to be a word-of-mouth kind of thing. And because we publish online, we have a huge following overseas, where US distribution systems are next to non-existent.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
All of the above. Ingram is our national distributor and makes arrangements for the major part of our book store distribution. We ourselves used to call on each and every local distributor – including grocery stores and coffee houses -- and we still do. Our delivery van is the back of the Managing Editor's car.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
All of the above.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
I've not had any luck, other than with local stores, getting bookstores to carry my journal. It's an uphill battle and bookstores only have so much shelf space. And what little room they do allocate for literary journals is usually for the biggies, like Glimmer Train.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
We queried distributors, and found one that wanted to work with us. That put us in a pretty decent number of stores -- most of them in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Before that, we'd gone to D.C. bookstores ourselves. And since I'm currently living in Iowa City, I went into the local store here (Prairie Lights) and they agreed to stock a few issues.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We haven’t been distributed to bookstores (!) for the last few years because of decisions made by prior personnel about the relative fiduciary merits of such endeavors. Which is to say, you don’t really make any money off of distributing your journal to bookstores through such outlets as Ingram and DeBoer. But I don’t believe in not being out there to be read because there’s no money in it; prior personnel believed that if people wanted to read us they would come to us. Wrong. We will be distributed by Ingram later this year.
Dan:
Do you consider your journal to be a regional journal or not?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
I consider Carve to be a world journal. We encourage submissions from authors overseas and try to include at least 2 foreign authors in every edition.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
No. From the start we've been considered a national/international journal.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
I am proud to say that BLR is an international journal. We have subscribers from NYC to India!
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
No, it's a national journal in every sense of the word. We publish writers from all over the world and we have no preference to subject matter. We just take the best stuff sent to us.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Not particularly, in that we don't seem to be too concerned with the things Washington, D.C. seems most concerned with. I mean, we all have our political interests, and certainly some of the writers we've published have theirs, but we don't consider ourselves a political journal. Mostly we just like good fiction, and poetry, and pop culture.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
No, though the world thinks it is. Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks fought against this perception when the journal was founded back in 1935, and the fight continues to this day. But having said that, there somehow creeps into our pages a good deal of work that has as its soul an orientation toward the south. This may be a result of my own predispositions as well as the work that comes into our offices through the
mail. But we are not in the business of publishing stuff just because it’s got crawfish and hushpuppies in it.
Dan:
With so much technology available these days, do you believe a staff member needs to live in the area the journal is published from? Or is it possible to be productive and live elsewhere, maybe visiting once or twice per issue?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
Communication by email and telephone is plenty. We read, we talk, we decide. What else is there?
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
PRAIRIE SCHOONER's staff lives in Lincoln and works at the University of Nebraska. Our typesetter, printer, and cover artists live all over the country.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
Funny timing. Our Editor-in-Chief is currently living in Costa Rica and she has not missed a beat. She recently visited for our editorial meeting, but is back in Costa Rica now. I hear from her even more now than I did when she was living in New York.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
It's possible to be productive from elsewhere. Nearly everything can be sent and viewed electronically these days.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Hey, here's one I can definitely answer! I'm living right now in Iowa City, though I was living in D.C. when we first started this thing. It's been pretty easy to do everything remotely. We take only email submissions, so there's no paper trail to contend with. And we communicate with each other mostly by email. Of course I miss out on the weekly meetings (still held at the same bar in downtown D.C. where the four of us first started getting together). And so I sometimes have to send long-winded emails to the other editors explaining why I think something is a good idea or a bad idea. And I try to get back to D.C . periodically to catch up in person, especially if we're hosting a party or some other sort of fundraiser. I consider the other editors friends, as well as coworkers, so of course I miss seeing them. But it's manageable. Sometimes I prop up headshots of the other guys around my kitchen table and have a tea party, but that's ... wait, I think I've said too much.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
If, as is our case, the publication is being funded in a large part by an institution, I think it behooves the editor to live and work there. I am being paid by this institution - I am also on the faculty here - and so I think I ought to be here. And because I am going to be here, I want the staff with whom I work to be here - we need to be in constant contact, and
emails just don’t do that job. Even in the face of the technology available to us, we are still in the business of crafting a piece of art, and doing that at a remove from one another just doesn’t bring into play the sort of intimacy we need in order to do that work.
Dan:
Does the journal solicit stories/essays? If so, have you ever had to kick back a story or an essay for editorial reasons? If so, how difficult is that to do?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
I presume you mean, do we solicit stories from specific authors or agents? We do not.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
All fiction, poetry, and essays come in over the transom. We don't solicit material for the magazine and we read everything that comes in.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
BLR publishes fiction, non-fiction, as well as poetry. We solicit work, but are very open to new writers. I am not sure what you mean by "kick back" but I can tell you that if we like a story or essay, but think it needs work, our editors will take the time and work with the writer.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
I've solicited a few pieces before. However, on each occasion I had heard the writer read the particular piece of work at some literary gathering or another. So, I've never asked a writer for something only to send it back *knock on wood*. I imagine it would be difficult, however.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
We've solicited several things from writers we all liked, mostly via email (except in the rare case when we actually knew the person in real life). So far, we've had only small suggestions/tweaks for those pieces. I'm sure it could be an uncomfortable discussion to have, but you'd have to have it. We've had to reject some work by friends, which is tough. But I think that just comes along with the territory. We always try to be nice about it, at least.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
Sure, I ask people I know and respect to submit stuff, and I have most definitely sent things back. James Lee Burke’s agent sent us a story (actually, it was an unsolicited manuscript), and I was delighted and hopeful, wanting very much to publish something from him. But when I finished the story, it just wasn’t right, and I wrote his agent and
told her so. Upon which the agent sent another story, which was even better, and which we gladly published. But writers - mature ones, anyway - understand that not everything always works, and understand the fact of rejection.
Dan:
Does the journal actively search the slush pile to look for new writers? Does the journal consider it a priority to discover newcomers to the world of being published? What sort of percentage of stories, essays and/or poems published come from previously unpublished writers?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
Everything that we read and publish comes from the slushpile, 100%, and I am damned proud of that. Many of the authors we publish are accomplished, polished writers with multiple books in print. They look for publication, too, just like the newbie. But we are also proud to pluck from the pile a gem written by an unknown, previously unpublished author. I think practically every edition we publish has an author's first publication credit. We read our stories blind, that is, without a name on the page. And in a number of cases already I have seen these writers go on to publish novels, collections, and to create a buzz in the literary world.
Look at what Story used to do. Story was the first publication credit for a multitude of great American writers. They were unpretentious. All they wanted was to publish interesting fiction.
Too many magazines, I think, look for known authors and will publish a crappy story by a known-author because they know the name lends "prestige" to the magazine and will drive sales. I feel a sacred trust to our subscribers to publish stories based on literary merit alone, sales be damned. While I can't guarantee that readers will like every story, I do hope that they find at least one story every edition that makes subscribing worthwhile.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
YES! YES! The slush pile IS the magazine. If I had to guess (and I do) maybe forty percent comes from new writers (maybe not first publication but before book publication). We read agented material, too. And publish major writers as well as new ones.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
"Slush pile" is an interesting term, isn't it? When I think of slush, I think of the black watery snow at the edge of a curb. I have never heard any BLR staff member refer to our submissions as such either. Like any journal, we look for some new writers and some established writers, but more than anything, we read every single poem, essay, and story in order to find the best, most moving work.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
Yep. We read everything that comes our way. There is no better feeling than discovering a really nice story or poem by a writer who hasn't been published before. It depends on the issue, but I say about 10-20% comes from unpublished writers. A bigger percentage comes from writer's who have only been published a handful of times.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
I'm not sure about the exact percentage of first-time-published authors, but we've had at least a couple in these first two issues. And the "slush pile" is pretty much our only pile, except for those few times we've specifically solicited work. To me, discovering good work is the joy of this job; that's the reason to do it. Sometimes I've read a submission and immediately emailed the other three guys with a note that says "You have to read this." That impulse, I think, is the mark of a really good story.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We don’t actively search the slushpile for anything because, truly, everything is a possibility, and to set a newcomer over someone else is to be unfair - all manuscripts are worthy of our attention simply by virtue of the fact they have arrived at our door. We also do not set any sort of quota on publishing newcomers - that’s just silly, and would mean, therefore, that better manuscripts would be dumped because we had to meet our quota. Having said that, and as I said above, we are delighted when we get manuscripts that are by newcomers - in the spring 2005 issue, for example, we published six stories, three of which were first publications. We didn’t even know they were first-timers, and only figured it out when we started to sniff around the contributor notes they sent in. We make it a point always to note in the notes the fact of the work being a first publication - that’s the point, finally, of the whole thing: finding the next voices.
Dan:
Does it help an author at all to have an agent when it comes to publishing in your journal?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
(Laughs) Only if the agent sent him/her to us. But no, we wouldn't likely give special weight to a story submitted in behalf of an author by an agent.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
No. But publishing in PRAIRIE SCHOONER can bring agents to you. Many subscribe.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
Agent, no agent, doesn't make a difference, really.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
No, again, we read everything so an agent wouldn't help one way or another.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
I don't know that it would make much of a difference. It's really all about the work.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
No.
Dan:
How does your journal pay those who are published? In copies? In cash? By page? Or simply with the privilege of being published?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
With profuse thanks. Authors included in our anthology receive copies. But the Carver Awards are one of the country's best-paying writing contests, and I think that counts for something. We pay a $2000 first, a $1000 second, and $500 third prize. And we pay every finalist $100. So the total package is $4200 paid out to ten writers. That upped the ante considerably as far as writing contests go.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
We pay in copies and give over $10,000 in annual prizes. We're on the way to paying all contributors. We also support an annual Prize Book Series in short fiction and poetry, two books we choose each year from an open competition, with $3,000 each to winners, and publication by the University of Nebraska Press under their standard contract.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
The BLR pays by journal copies as far as I know, but we are always looking for new funding sources, so it is quite possible that that will change in the future.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
We pay two contributor's copies. I'd love to be able to pay cash, but our budget just doesn't allow for it.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Thus far, we've been paying in copies, and for Issue 1 we made all the contributors a mix CD and promised to buy them a couple beers if they were ever in the D.C. area. Our goal is to start paying writers cash money, which we hope we'll be able to do soon.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We page $30 per printed page, poetry and prose both, as well as a one-year
subscription and two complimentary copies.
Dan:
Does your journal accept electronic submissions?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
We do. We used to prefer them, but now we only insist that if a story is selected for publication, the author send us a suitable electronic version.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
Rarely and those submissions are often book reviews.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
Absolutely!
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
I prefer submissions the old fashioned way, on paper. I'm not technophobic, but I do have a bad habit of deleting emails. So, it's just easier this way.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
We only take email submissions (instructions are on our web site). At first we took both email submissions and regular mail, but the relatively few submissions we got through postal mail didn't justify the difficulty of handling those submissions between the four of us.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
No.
Dan:
How about simultaneous submissions? Do you feel it's fair for an author to have a story out there for up to six months with a journal without submitting it to others at the same time?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
I don't think it is fair and we accept (encourage) simultaneous submissions. The only thing we ask is that if an author accepts our offer of publication, that she/he withdraw the story from consideration elsewhere.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
PRAIRIE SCHOONER has never considered simultaneous submissions for publication. We're here to serve writers -- see question about love/money above -- and we have a staff dedicated to reading manuscripts. We read as quickly as possible. But we can't continue to serve writers without knowing our efforts will be honored by their patience. We're all
writers here. If a writer hasn't heard back in three months, ask by email or telephone. Longer is too long.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
As a writer myself, I think that the entire process of submission and publication is very rigorous. I do think it is fair for a writer to have a story or poem out to several places at once since it takes a while for most journals to get back to the writer (with good reason). I think, though, that the writer should be responsible to contact journals as soon as they know of a piece being accepted elsewhere, and kindly withdraw the piece(s). I also question writers who have their work out to many, many places. I'm not talking about 3-5, but 10-20. It is important, I have learned, to really get to know the places you are sending to. Quality, not quantity. Or, hopefully, over time, both!
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
I have no problems with simultaneous submissions. I never have. It's hard enough being a writer without forcing them to wait for months on end to see if a piece is going to be published or not.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
In a perfect world, writers would send a story to us and then wait around with their fingers crossed until they heard back. But in a perfect world, journals like ours would have huge staffs of well-paid readers and wouldn't take up to three months to get back to those writers. So until we can get a lot faster, I don't think it's fair to ask writers not to send their stuff elsewhere. I'm a writer too, so I know how frustrating the process is from the other end. If you never submitted your stories simultaneously ... well, I just don't see how you could do it. We do ask that people send us a note to tell us when a story's been picked up elsewhere, but that just seems like common courtesy.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We accept simultaneous submissions, but they don’t get cuts into line because they are being seen by others out there; that is, don’t believe that giving us that information makes us read it any more quickly.
Dan:
How important do you consider your internet presence? Does your website allow for the reading of select stories from the current issue? How about past issues?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
The internet is the primary residence of our magazine. We publish a 200 page book every two months and deliver it worldwide for free. Without the internet, we wouldn't be here.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
We have a website with PRAIRIE SCHOONER contents posted and some pieces available for reading. We're also part of Project Muse, Poetry Daily, and many other pass-through internet publishers. But most of our readers find their way from the web to the print version. You can subscribe on-line and we have a toll-free phone number for charging to credit cards.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
I think the internet presence of BLR is very important. We have up to date information and people can read select pieces. It is a good gateway to our journal.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
An internet presence is very important these days. I'm currently working on a revamped web page for Controlled Burn. So, currently our internet presence is next to nothing. But, the internet is a great way for readers and writers to discover a journal.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
We originally conceived of our web site ( www.barrelhousemag.com) as a separate, but related entity. We publish fiction and nonfiction there, and we prefer things that are shorter, since the Web seems to be a kind of short-attention-span theater. There are certain things that work really well online that might not work in print, and vice versa. But I don't know exactly how to define that distinction except by example. If I stumbled upon an Alice Munro story online (and didn't know who Alice Munro was, and didn't know that I'm a tremendous fan of hers) I don't think I'd make it all the way through, because for some reason when I'm reading things online I suddenly come down with adult ADD. But in print, I'm more patient in waiting for stories to develop. That's maybe not a perfect example, but it's the best I can come up with off the top of my head.
We've now expanded the web site to include a blog (http://barrelhousemag.blogspot.com/) because we figured -- hey, here's a trend that hasn't quite been run into the ground! The blog is kind of a work-in-progress, and a place where the four of us (plus a few of our friends) can write shortish, hopefully amusing stuff about our various pop culture obsessions.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We are in the midst of a total makeover of our website. This is an incredibly important place to be seen, and we have to make it as informative and friendly as possible. We will have excerpts from pieces in present and past issues, yes.
Dan:
What is the purpose of Literary Journals having annual editor's awards? Simply for recognition for the authors, or is there something else?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
Once a year I buy myself a new coffee mug because without the perk I'd quit and go elsewhere. Oh, you meant for the authors. Well, I suppose they deserve the recognition. In the Carver Awards, we always give an unannounced and unadvertised Editors Choice Award to honor the best story we thought was not in the top three. It recognizes a fine story and gives us a tiny bit of editorial control in the contest. One pick. The guest judge makes the top three.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
My mother used to say, "Money is a good reward." We serve our writers by publication and prizes. We try hard to increase the amounts available to writers and many of our prizes are named for the donors who satisfy philanthropic and literary goals at once by endowing an annual prize or book series at PRAIRIE SCHOONER.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
This shows how new I am to editing a journal. Editor's Awards?
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
I believe it's a nice way to recognize writers. There also often seems to be a cash award for these things, and that's always nice for the writers. Overall, an recognition you can give a writer is a good thing. The writer's life is often lonely and frustrating and filled with a lot of waiting and worry. So those little things help.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Since we don't yet have annual awards, I'm pleading the fifth on this one.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
We are inaugurating our own series of editor’s awards to honor those who appear in our pages. We are doing this so that people will look at our journal and consider submitting and subscribing. There is no fee for this prize - we are selecting our winners from those we published in the prior volume year, and then announcing it in the press and shouting it from the rooftops so that people will know the quality of what they will find in our
pages, and to bring subscribers to us. We want, as I said, as many people as possible to read our journal!
Dan:
If you could get one simple message out to potential readers of your journal, what would it be?
Melvin Sterne - Carve:
All we want to do is publish good fiction. If you like to read good fiction, and like a magazine with a variety of good fiction, then give us a try.
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
Read, publish in, subscribe to, and support the journals that read, publish, and support good writers.
Corie Feiner - Bellevue Literary Review:
Bellevue Literary Review is a journal about humanity and the human experience. If you are a potential reader, may we touch an experience you have had. If you are a potential submitter, experience the journal as if it were a dialogue between all those who have lived through illness and healing.
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
Don’t be afraid of humor. I never get enough humor.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying both Anton Chekhov and The O.C. Just because you're eagerly awaiting Man vs. Beast III, that doesn't in and of itself make you a dolt.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
Good question. But this: you will find in our pages something that will move you, whether it be poetry or prose or art. The purpose of literature is to move the human heart, and that is what we are trying to do with the work we do here.
Dan:
Thanks again for your participation in this. I hope it brings some more readers your way!
Hilda Raz - Prairie Schooner:
Thanks for asking us to join the E- panel, Dan. You're on the front lines here!
Dan Crocker - Controlled Burn:
Thank you. It's been my pleasure. Keep up the good work.
Mike Ingram – Barrelhouse Review:
Thanks for having us! I hope my answers won't embarrass the other Barrelhouse folks too much.
Bret Lott - Southern Review:
My pleasure - and please keep those recovering from the double-whammy of Katrina and Rita in your hearts and minds.
Dan Crocker,
I don't know if you are aware that you are listed in the index of The Poets' Encyclopedia (online), but there is no information there about your obviously very busy existence in the service of poetry. It would be good if we could give you more credit for your work. It would also be good if we could contact you in email, Facebook, etc. It took a fair bit of searching for me to find you here.
Cheers,
Jack Large
Seoul
Posted by: Jack Large | January 25, 2009 at 03:15 AM