Six Questions for Shyla Jones, Editor-in-Chief, Superfroot

Superfroot publishes poetry, fiction to 5,000 words, flash fiction to 1,000 words, artwork, and photography. “We love writing that makes us scream, confuses us, makes us laugh, makes us uncomfortable, weird art, pretty art, colorful art, black and white art, all art!” Issues may be themed. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Shyla Jones: We started this magazine after years of wanting to do something creatively together. The other three editors and I have been best friends for three years after meeting through a creative community online. Once I started to get more involved in the literary community, I suggested the idea of starting up a magazine and everyone loved it. We wanted to bring forth a magazine that values strong written voices, but also strong visual voices. We want the aesthetics of our magazine to show up just as much as the words. 

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

SJ: We've always been fans of stories that swallow you. We want to drown in the setting, befriend the characters, laugh along with the voice. While we don't usually look for genre fiction such as science fiction and high fantasy for our particular magazine, that isn't to say we would outright deny those types submissions. What really matters is that the story captures us completely and gives us a world so bright that it seems like we're inside of it. 

This also goes for our visual submissions. We love dynamic settings, bright colors, and unique character design.

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

SJ: While we can appreciate the more "obvious" storylines, we really love works that surprise us. Of course, we also don't want to read overly sexual or violent work or work that condones anything like racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, etc. 

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

SJ: Capture us! Drag us into the world right away. The first few sentences are what people see first, and we want to read a first paragraph that stings and stays with us while we read the rest. 

SQF: If Superfroot had a theme song, what would it be and why?

SJ: Definitely "Superfruit" by Maude Latour. That's the song that inspired our name! It's also upbeat and fun like our magazine is.

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

SJ: What are future goals for Superfroot?

Our biggest goal is to start paying our contributors! We'd love to also go print and be able to provide contributors free copies and put any profit toward the magazine and our contributors. 

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