Six Questions for Ross McMeekin, Editor, Spartan

Spartan considers literary prose submissions of two thousand words or less. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine? 

RM: After a few enjoyable years reading and assistant editing at a larger journal, I desired to create a new venue.

SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?

RM: Control of language. Emotional depth. Control of metaphor.

SQF: What common mistakes do you encounter that turn you off to a submission?

RM: We get a lot of humor-based conversational pieces – which is fine – but many from that category in particular seem to lack deeper subtext, emotional resonance, and/or metaphorical meaning. 

SQF: Do you provide comments when you reject a submission?

RM: No. But most of our accepted pieces receive editorial attention.

SQF: Based on your experience as an editor, what have you learned about writing?

RM: There’s no shortage of great story ideas landing in our inbox. What’s difficult is finding a story in which the quality of the writing lives up to the ideas presented.

SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?

RM: What we mean by minimalism. People hear minimalism and think Raymond Carver, and then assume dirty realism. We’re open to fabulism, absurdism, and surrealism.

Thank you, Ross. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.

NEXT POST: 10/18--Six Questions for Makyla Curtis, Editor, Potroast