Six Questions for Lennie Cox, Editor, Our Day’s Encounter

From the website: “Please submit your day’s encounters–art, photographs, poems, creative writings (if it’s poetry, please send three poems), thoughts, journal entries, just about anything written, but this is not a pornographic site nor is it for the violent.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Lennie Cox: We thought it would be interesting to see how different people encounter their days.

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

LC: We look at everything, comment almost all of the time, but mostly we want people to follow our guidelines, be creative--not trite--and make us feel something.

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

LC: They send a piece they did not edit. It's that simple.

Also people send us their novels and novellas. We're a small press. We do not have the time.

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

LC: We read the entire piece so the first paragraph or first stanza is not the most important item to us. Many times the best parts are in the middle. Many times we offer help in making the piece more publishable.

SQF: Are there certain types of submissions you’d like to see more of (i.e. prose, memoir, art, etc)?

LC: More poetry--any style and genre.

More flash fiction--under 250 words. Any kind of flash fiction is fine by us. Send it on and we'll read it.

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

LC: How do we as editors deal with rejection when we send our work off? We grin and bear. Rejection is part of the learning cycle for writers. If you cannot stand rejection, perhaps writing is not for you.

One more thing: We might also answer the question: what poets do we admire?

Two: Mary Oliver who is our all time favorite--but this does not mean you should write like her to get on our site.

Michael H. Brownstein--check him out!

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