Freele Pesters Installment 4: Literary Magazines
LAR Fiction Editor Stefanie Freele is back to pestering LAR staff and contributors, this time about their experiences with literary magazines.
Ann Beman – Non-Fiction Editor
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
The Sun would be lovely, but if I got something in Alimentum–The Literature of Food–it would mean I had busted out of my book review rut and walked the walk, or, more appropos, walked the souffle. In other words, I have been a food editor, have rabidly read food magazines, know the lingo, but I haven’t written anything literary about food.
Do you read lit mags in page order, genre order, or in a random or personal way?
I read the nonfiction in The Sun first, then whatever strikes me. Same with Alimentum. Then, since the other lit mags are nonfiction-only, I read the coolest-titled pieces first, or the pieces by writers I like.
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
2010, people! There’s no excuse for not accepting sim-subs. “We’ve always done it this way” doesn’t cut it. You sound like the old guy at the Thanksgiving table who complains because the green beans are still crunchy. Sorry, bub, we haven’t done gray, mushy green beans since 1987– same year Tiffany came out with “I Think We’re Alone Now.” OK, now it’s 2010, and you’re definitely alone–both in wanting your green beans the same consistency as pudding, and in not allowing simultaneous submissions.
Rusty Barnes – Contributor “An Explanation of Love” LAR Issue 8
How many lit mags to you subscribe to and how many do you read? Your favorites?
Poetry, American Poetry Review, Georgia Review, Pank, Gulf Coast, Ploughshares, Hobart, GUD are the current ones. I read many many more than that, mostly online. I don’t catch everybody all the time but I’d say I regularly read another 25 or so. I have them bookmarked and go through routinely every week to see if they publish new content. My favorites are SmokeLong Quarterly, Ploughshares and Poetry.
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
I have no real goals in that regard anymore. I want more readers, and I’ll get them any way I can, through well-known prestigious mags if I think I have a chance there, or more likely, at the start-up print or online journal running with little or no support.
Do you read lit mags in page order, genre order, or in a random or personal way?
Completely random. I follow my favorite writers, then names I recognize from somewhere or other, then by title.
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
They’re a bit backward, if not retarded, in the grade school sense of the word. Everyone does it, or ought to, and magazines that kick about it are not embracing reality.
What is your response to rejection: do you faint, shrug, kick your tire? And how do you celebrate the acceptances?
I don’t care much about rejection unless I’ve been solicited and then rejected outright without a little note to salve my ego. There are more journals out there than I could ever get into, so I’ll always have an audience, I hope, even though I don’t reek of faux pomo cool.
If I get accepted somewhere, I turn from the laptop and tell the family, who cheer for me (literally–I have a great wife and great kids), then I post about it in the social media (Facebook, blog, writers groups). Then I forget about it until I get proofs or until the story is published. Then I read some of the work surrounding mine, then I don’t think about it ever again except to say, OK, now that one has a home. On to the next.
Tanya Chernov – Poetry Editor
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
PANK–because they keep rejecting me!
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions? I understand that some magazines are just really short-handed, so making rules like this must make it easier to keep up with the slush.
R.A. Allen – Contributor “Cancellation” – LAR Issue 8
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
I think magazines that don’t accept sim-subs are denying themselves a resource just the same as magazines that resist electronic submissions. It could take decades to get a single acceptance if you submitted each story one at a time. I no longer bother with them. This is not to say I believe in mass mailings: five or six at a time, to me, is reasonable.
What is your response to rejection: do you faint, shrug, kick your tire? And how do you celebrate the acceptances?
Rejection: shrug, with a few minutes of disappointment and a note to either try something different with the rejecting publication or write them off. Acceptance: I experience a quiet, yet intense, mental high that lasts about two weeks (seriously, I try not to drive a car during the first two days of this period). No sucking up intended, but please note that this buzz endured even longer after you accepted “Cancellation.”
Joe Ponepinto – Book Review Editor
How many lit mags to you subscribe to and how many do you read? Your favorites?
Currently subscribe: Gettysburg Review, American Short Fiction, Glimmer Train, Tin House, Fifth Wednesday, Raven Chronicles. I pick up random copies of a few others at the local bookstore.
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
With all due respect to Tanya’s answer, I think these mags are woefully out of touch and unfair to writers. 6 to 8 months to wait for a rejection and no sim subs? I don’t bother with them.
Donna Emerson – Contributor – “Amish Quilt” – LAR Issue 7
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
Just one?! I’d like to see my work in Calyx, Persimmon, Sage Woman, because they are devoted to women. I plan to see my work in the Missouri Review, The Sun, Alaska Quarterly, Nimrod, and one day (when I have enough nerve to send ) the New Yorker, because of the quality of their publications.
Do you read lit mags in page order, genre order, or in a random or personal way?
I read in all different ways. If it’s a journal I’m in, I tend to look at the Table of Contents and see who else is there. Then I read my piece and all the people I know or have heard of, then see the rest. If it’s not a journal I’m in, I do the same thing. Or sometimes, when I’m tired, I just open the magazine and see what comes up.
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
I feel pinched by those journals who don’t allow simultaneous submissions. I hate hanging out for 4-12 months while they decide–when the poem could find a home elsewhere. I feel those that allow sim-sub are generous and I feel fond of them.
What is your response to rejection: do you faint, shrug, kick your tire? And how do you celebrate the acceptances?
Depends on the journal, which piece I entered, how they put their rejection (though now I call them “returns.”). If it’s done in a relational way, I take it well. If it’s a form letter, I tend to snarl a little. Since many of my pieces are later accepted by someone else, I don’t fly apart like I did in the beginning–I try to say, “You will find a home, little poem.”
And acceptances are very good days. I jump around the house, dance with my daughter, sing the Halleluiah Chorus, lie in the sun and smile. My husband gets really good hugs on acceptance days.
Kelly Davio – Managing Editor
How many lit mags to you subscribe to and how many do you read? Your favorites?
I subscribe to four or five regularly, but the bulk of my journal-buying takes place at the lit mag rack at my favorite independent bookstore. Copper Nickel is a perennial favorite–they do consistently good work, and don’t mind taking risks.
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
I’ve always had the rather baseless feeling that, once my work appeared in Rattle, I could consider myself a real poet. The poor editor has been subjected to about 30 of my poems at this point, and I’m coming to terms with the fact that I may never be able to consider myself a real poet.
Do you read lit mags in page order, genre order, or in a random or personal way?
I skim the ToC for writers whose work I know, read those pieces first, then read other pieces in accordance with how interesting I find the remaining titles. This is odd, because I spend an inordinate amount of time ordering LAR, assuming everyone will, of course, read the journal in order.
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
As an editor, I really don’t like to bag on others’ procedures and guidelines, because I know running a journal is tough work, no matter your policies; I try to respect others’ methods as much as possible. That said, as a writer, I refuse to submit to journals that don’t accept simultaneous submissions. It doesn’t make sense to me to give one journal a year or more to mail back a submission that I could otherwise place–at a journal of equivalent quality–in a couple of months.
What is your response to rejection: do you faint, shrug, kick your tire? And how do you celebrate the acceptances?
I’m so used to rejection at this stage that my only ritual is to enter the response in my spreadsheet, then get back to whatever I was doing. When I get an acceptance, I usually tell my husband, then tell my writing partner, and eat some string cheese. Then I enter that response in my spreadsheet. And maybe have some more string cheese.
Stace Budzko – Contributor –“Health and Beauty” – LAR Issue 8
How many lit mags to you subscribe to and how many do you read? Your favorites?
My reading has always gravitated toward those venues that celebrate the greater dare of story. What’s so important about magazines such as LAR taps directly into something Joe Strummer once said: People can change anything they want to; and that means everything in the world. Show me any country and there’ll be people in it. And it’s the people that make the country. People have got to stop pretending they’re not in the world. A way to further appreciate this insight might be to replace “people” with “writers”. My focus remains on the print and online outlets that go for this subversive aesthetic.
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
The next one. I believe writers who are serious about getting their work out there and have done the market research are thrilled when told We Want You every time.
Do you read lit mags in page order, genre order, or in a random or personal way?
Depends on the mood. When fumbling with language I’ll check out what the poets are doing. If stuck with story issues, I’ll slam fiction/essay into my veins.
Melissa Hart – Contributor – “Who’s Looking” LAR Issue 8
What literary mag would you really like to see your work in and why?
I’d really like to see my work in Creative Nonfiction. That’s mostly the genre in which I write, and I’m still learning to incorporate research into an engaging story, so getting published in this one would be a triumph. I did an interview with the editor, Lee Gutkind, a while back, and I have so much respect and admiration for his magazine and his perspective on this genre.
On the idea of sim-subs, what are your thoughts about magazines who don’t allow simultaneous submissions?
I’ve had editors hold onto my work for three years before publishing it. That’s just not feasible for a working writer. I’ve interviewed so many editors who graciously accept simultaneous submissions with the caveat that should another editor accept the work, the writer has an obligation to notify all other editors to whom he/she has sent the same piece. That seems fair to me . . . but then, I work on the writing side of this game.
Your response to rejection?
I’ve been writing for so long now that I usually shrug and see the rejection as a challenge both to get the piece published elsewhere, and to write something that the rejecting editor can’t help but accept for publication.
And how do you celebrate the acceptances?
If there’s money involved, I take my family on an adventure. I sold two essays last month, and with that money, I took my daughter to visit her grandmas in California. I’d much rather travel than wield a Prada purse.