From the Farther Trees is a bimonthly, print magazine that publishes original fantasy fiction of 1,000-15,000 words. “We are open to original stories in all subgenres of fantasy, ranging from fairy tales to science fantasy, weird westerns to romantic fantasy, epic fantasy to urban fantasy, swords & sorcery to quiet character studies, and everything in between.” Read the complete guidelines here.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
FtFT: Small press magazines are a rich and exciting field full of diverse, emerging talents. They also tend to be almost exclusively online these days. Many small press magazines commonly have lifespans of less than a couple years, or even just a couple issues. Once they vanish from the internet, all the stories they brought to the public often vanish as well. Our goal is to create a physical, tangible printed work that won’t disappear into the ether. We drew inspiration from the DIY fanzines and home-printed publications of the 1970s and 1980s, which we collect whenever we find them.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
FtFT: Quality prose, a sense of character and perspective, and a compelling fantasy element. Words are how writers pull their readers into the story they wish to tell; if your words are inert and inelegant, mechanically describing without imparting any sense of life or cadence, your storytelling will suffer as a result.
Similarly, if your story is driven by some generic, emotionless plot device rather than by its characters, it won’t hold our interest. Even the most swashbuckling tale of adventure should be rooted in characters that have some life of their own.
Finally, if it takes your story two pages to show its first inkling of the unusual or fantastic, that’s two pages you could probably trim from your final draft. In most cases, you don’t need to detail your narrator’s subway ride to get to where the action is. The fantastic element can be subtle, or it could dominate every aspect of life in your story. But the fantastic should always be present in some capacity.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
FtFT: Poor quality prose. Ninety percent of submissions lose our interest within the first few lines thanks to lifeless prose. Deliberately nasty or exploitative themes are another immediate rejection. No matter how provocative or edgy you think your subject matter is, odds are professional fantasy authors explored it a hundred times in the 1980s alone.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
FtFT: A reason to become invested in the story being told. It could be a compelling character introduction. It could be a intriguing glimpse into the fantastic elements that will shape the rest of the story. Ideally, it’s both.
SQF: Are there certain genres or story lines you’d like to see more (or less) of in your submissions pile?
FtFT: We’ve received surprisingly few sword and sorcery stories, or fantasy adventures in secondary world settings in general. Modern takes on these subgenres—using modern storytelling techniques—would be delightful.
Things we’d love to see less of: As you might imagine, we’ve received a glut of pandemic and apocalyptic narratives. It’s highly unlikely we’ll ever publish any of these. Likewise, plots built around murder or revenge are rote, uninspired, and have been done a million times over.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
FtFT: A section on favorite authors or inspirations could be interesting. Some of our favorite fantasy authors include Peter S. Beagle, Phyllis Eisenstein, Jeffrey Ford, N. K. Jemisin, Margo Lanagan, Ursula K. Le Guin, Sofia Samatar, Catherynne M. Valente, Jo Walton, and E. Lily Yu.
Thank you, Mac and Rick. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
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