Six Questions for Jordan Hartt, Editor, Kahini Quarterly

Kahini Quarterly publishes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and cross-genre/un-genre of no more than 325 words. “Kahini Quarterly values work that thrives through an alchemy of sensory detail, setting, character, point of view, plot, structure, pacing, voice, style, tone, title, authorial identity, and theme–and which transcends its own craft elements to arrive at the condition of art.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Jordan Hartt: The reading and writing process is one of the most important things we can do, I think. When we write, we share our perspective on the world with other people. Reading works the same way, allowing us to step completely into the consciousness of another person. When we read “Things Fall Apart,” for instance, we become an Igbo man watching his civilization suffer under the encroachment of the colonizers. When we read “House of the Spirits,” we experience directly the upheaval of the CIA-backed overthrow of Salvador Allende’s democratically elected government. When we read John Updike, we become white people living in the suburbs in the United States of the twentieth century. Reading allows us to taste what others taste, smell what they smell, hear what they hear, feel on our skin their feelings, and see things through someone else’s eyes, becoming someone else through all the five senses. I think this is why reading is so incredibly powerful and life-transformational. It builds empathy and understanding, which allows us to make more informed, socially conscious decisions with our lives. Writing is the opposite side of that. When we write, we share our own points of view with others, so that they can see the world through our eyes, hear it through our ears, taste it the way we taste it. Writing is our own personal contribution to the conversation.

So I started Kahini Quarterly in order to be able to promote and honor work that does this. By restricting word count to 325 I ask writers to get instantly to the heart of what it is that they are saying. Truly great work—I believe—is work that someone would be willing to cut their finger and write in their own blood. I know that's dumb, gross, and unrealistic, but it's how I feel. And by restricting our word count, we get to the heart of what we're doing that much more quickly. 

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

JH: There are eight things I look for: first and foremost, is sensory detail. If this is missing, there should be a really good reason. The next six things I look for are all built off sensory detail: setting, character (including point of view), plot (including structure, tension, and pacing), authorial voice (or tone/style), and the title and theme of the work. The final thing is authorial identity and the least important, to me: who is the person writing this.  

A really great work will ignite from all these elements, but also transcend them. There is no way to know what that will look like until it happens. 

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

JH: Abstractions. 

SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?

JH: There should be, immediately, a sense of tension, of some kind. This can be done in wildly different ways. Sometimes, the line break is what provides the tension, or character, or point of view, or anything else. There is no limit to what can be done on the page. I'm not sure who said it, but all great works of art are completely unique in their own way. A truly great work of art is something that has never been seen before.

SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?

JH: If people are going to fuck in a literary story, it should relate to character somehow. Or setting. Or voice. Etc. Same as if they buy strawberries, go to the Post Office, or argue in a parking lot. There is no topic that doesn't work for a story or poem as long as it’s handled well. 

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

JH: I would encourage writers to write often, and write in their true voices, not as a copy of someone else. Write write write. But writers need to develop, within themselves, their own aesthetic before submitting. A writer should be awed with what they've written whether or not any publisher agrees. That is what success is, and it takes a lot of study and practice to get there. To feel that you have written something that causes your body to vibrate like a tuning fork at exactly the right pitch when you read it. Then, you'll find your publishing venue, and it will be a publisher who gets what you're doing and supports it.

Addendum: In addition to including an interview with a vital, contemporary writer in each edition, talking about how they craft their work, we're also going to be including a brand-new craft lecture in and of its own right. So authors may well find it worth their time to subscribe at http://www.kahini.org/, as well as contribute work.

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