SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Meg Pokrass: I started it because I have been an editor for other journals for nearly 6 years and it felt like time to do something of my own. Originally, I was an editor for Smokelong Quarterly, and then later, I became an associate editor for Frederick Barthelme’s New World Writing. I suppose, it just felt like time to do my own thing. I wanted to have more effect on what was or wasn’t published, and I wanted the focus to be flash which is what I write and love.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
MP: Originality in how a story is told. What we long for is an emotional tug, urgency, passion. What is the point of reading something that doesn’t make us feel? We want to feel swept away. We want to fall in love.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
MP:
- A piece that feels like an underdeveloped short story instead of flash
- Imitative writing
- A feeling one is reading a story that has been done again and again, with nothing new to add, no new insight.
SQF: What is Flash Fix-It?
MP: It is a fancy name for my own offering for editorial feedback. Writers can contact me directly for mentoring, editing, or as an as-needed creative coach. I have done this for quite some time and love doing so.
SQF: If New Flash Fiction Review had a theme song, what would it be and why?
MP: Simple Feeling by The Heartless Bastards.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
MP: Who are the other editors on staff?
Tiff Holland, Sr. Editor
Pamela Painter, Features Editor
James Thomas, Consulting Editor
A dream team, I feel!
Thank you, Meg. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
NEXT POST: 2/13—Six Questions for Sarah Baker, et. al., Editors, Small Po[r]tions
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