A Quiet Courage is permanently closed as of September 8. 2018.
A Quiet Courage is an online literary journal that publishes compelling, poignant, memorable, and well-written microfiction and poetry in 100 words or less. A Quiet Courage specializes in tiny words with resonance and impact.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Clara
Ray Rusinek Klein: A lot
of reasons. None that would really be of any interest or benefit to anyone
who’s thinking about submitting something. It doesn’t really matter why I
started this literary journal, I just want to focus on the writing. The writing
is what matters.
SQF: What are the top three things you look
for in a submission and why?
CK: There isn’t a top three. I
just publish whatever I like and whatever I consider to be the best out of what
people submit.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a
submission?
CK: A lot of
things. But don’t let this turn you away from submitting, don’t let this
discourage you from submitting.
Horribly formatted pieces, with
a lot of typos, errors, and really bad spelling and/or punctuation, pieces that
haven’t been edited. Pieces that have “&” instead of the word “and”.
Submissions that don’t bother with any greeting or don’t even address the
editor at all, or that get my name or gender wrong or even get the name of the
journal wrong. Submissions obviously over the very clearly stated word count
limit. Submissions that say “Dear sir or madam”, which shows they haven’t even really
looked at the journal and don’t even know who the editor is let alone know the
gender of the editor. At least say “Dear Editor” instead of “Dear sir or madam”.
Submissions that are sent almost immediately or very soon after a previous submission
was rejected. You can only submit once a month, but people have ignored this. Also,
submissions that are really, really horrific quality, submissions that aren’t
well written at all. Submissions that don’t even make any sense at all.
Biographies that are really long, too long, and sometimes even longer than the
submission itself. Bios have to be 100 words maximum and they have to be
professional. Lack of any biography at all is another thing. Unprofessional,
irrelevant, and/or amateurish biographies are another thing that bothers me. Also,
pieces submitted without titles. Pieces have to be submitted with titles, it
gets annoying to be asking for titles after a submission’s been made. I can’t
publish a piece without a title.
Furthermore, and this is
something that keeps coming up, it really bothers me when people don’t even
bother to at least take the time to say the bare minimum basic courtesy of
“Thank you” when I do the work of publishing their writing. People who never
even acknowledge the publication of their writing at all really bother me. Such
people are very memorable, and not in a good way. I’ll be really unlikely to publish
their writing ever again in the future. Not even at least saying “Thank you” to
any editor who goes to the trouble and time and effort of publishing your work
is a surefire way to give yourself a bad name and to be very memorable to editors.
Additionally it bothers me when
people send totally inappropriate and even really offensive submissions that
would obviously never be published in A Quiet Courage, let alone in any other
reputable literary journal or magazine.
SQF: Do you provide comments when you
reject a submission?
CK: No. We don’t want to spend time
doing that. But we’re polite and try to be encouraging.
A lot
of the time we know immediately that a submission isn’t something we want to
publish, but sometimes another market will come to mind, and then we’ll suggest
that they might like to submit there. Suggesting another market is rather rare
though.
SQF: Why a 100 word limit?
CK: I like really short pieces
that tell the most story in the fewest amount of words possible and the fewest
amount of words necessary. I like pieces that seem bigger than their words,
pieces that seem more than their words. Less is more. Cut needless words. I
think 100 words or less is a good maximum limit that’s big enough to pack a
good story in without becoming really verbose or boring. You can write a story
in 100 words or less that’s really good and impactful, and you can also make a
really good poem that tells a good story in 100 words or less. I like stories
that choose and use every single word carefully and precisely to further the
story and to reveal more about the story and characters. I just like the really
short tiny pieces that don’t go on and on. Make it count, make it have impact
that resonates in the reader’s mind and echoes in the white space around the
page. I like pieces that don’t waste a single word.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you
wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
CK: I don’t know, there isn’t one
right now, although I’ll probably think of something else later when it’s too
late and this has already been posted.
Thank you, Clara. We all appreciate you
taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment