Six Questions for Diana May-Waldman & Mitchell Waldman, Editors, Blue Lake Review

Blue Lake Review publishes fiction (100-10,000 words) in the literary, mainstream and experimental genres and poetry of all types. Read the complete guidelines here.

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

Blue Lake Review: A self-edited piece, originality, and something that moves or speaks to us. We're not impressed by people trying to impress us with their vocabulary or cleverness, or imitations of other writers. We're just looking for some truth and original content in the writing that makes us say" I wish we wrote that!"

SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?

BLR: Redundancy and over the top artsiness that makes no apparent sense, and use of vocabulary to try to impress the editor. WE ARE NOT IMPRESSED. We read bios after acceptance, reviewing each piece for its own merit.

SQF: Will you publish a submission an author posted on a personal blog? 

BLR: If it's good, yes.

SQF: What do you want authors to know about the submissions you reject and how authors should respond? Along this same idea, do you mind if authors reply with polite questions about the comments they receive?

BLR: We receive a lot of submissions, so the fact that we decline a specific piece does not necessarily mean it is bad. We don't mind at all if writers politely question our comments. "Politely" is the operative word. If authors are angry they might think twice about questioning us at that time. We're writers, too, so we know what it's like to be rejected.

SQF: What magazines do you read?

BLR: We read the magazines we submit to, but given the number of submissions we receive, and our other daily life tasks, we do not have a huge amount of time to read other magazines.

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

BLR: What is our response time?

Given our life outside the magazine and the huge quantity of submissions we receive, it may take a while for us to get back to writers, so they need to be patient.

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

NEXT POST: 2/28--Six Questions for Ariana D. Den Bleyker, Editor, Emerge Literary Journal