Dead Fern Press publishes fiction and creative non-fiction (including flash fiction) to 3,000 words, poetry to one page, and art. “We are looking to publish all kinds of poetry, but prefer to stay away from clichés.” Read the complete guidelines here - https://www.deadfernpress.com/submit.
SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Megan Cassiday: Dead Fern was an idea that I had toyed around with for quite some time after a friend whose writing I've always enjoyed and whose literary career I've watched since we met a few years ago, started their own lit mag. I created my website probably six months before actually going through with making it live and announcing DFP on Twitter, and during that time I had been submitting my own work to various places and I had gotten a few poems accepted which was really cool, but I was fairly new to the lit world and didn't know where or how to find magazines that fit my personal writing aesthetic; and I figured if I was having these kinds of issues, surely other people were too, and that's when I decided to finalize DFP.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
MC: The top three things that I look for in a submission are:
Number One: is the submission sent according to our guidelines? If it isn't, I can only assume you didn't read them or, you did and just didn't care which leads me to believe you aren't that interested in Dead Fern itself, just in getting your work published somewhere. I've had people who aren't able to follow some guidelines due to one reason or another reach out to me about them and we work together to find a happy medium, but I can definitely tell when someone just saw an open submission call and threw their stuff into an email without caring.
Number Two: does the submission reflect the aesthetic of the magazine and tone of work already published? If someone is having trouble deciding if their work will be a good fit here, I always suggest reading a few pieces that are on the site already. Dead Fern has a taste for the sad, dark, peculiar, and sometimes disturbing so sending over a love poem or fairytale might not be the best bet at getting accepted. That doesn't mean I won't give every submission a fair read, but it's always important to be mindful of a magazines 'vibe'.
Number Three: language used. As said before, Dead Fern has a taste for literature on the darker side so I don't mind reading stories and poems with disturbing topics—in fact I'm happy that I've created a space where people feel safe sending me these kinds of things, but something I won't tolerate is purposefully harmful language or images. Thankfully it hasn't happened many times, but I have gotten submissions that are meant to be shocking upon opening and I think that's taking advantage of my openness and Dead Fern's unstated "send me whatever you want" policy (minus the blurb on our submit page that states not to send racist, homophobic, or sexist work). I often read submissions of death, trauma, sex, drugs, and the like so to go out of your way and send something harmful just isn't okay.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
MC: The biggest turn off is for sure not following the submission guidelines. If it's just something small like not titling your email correctly or forgetting a bio, I can work around that because I myself make mistakes and am forgetful too, but there is a line I have to draw in order to get through everyone's work in a timely manner. Following the guidelines also shows that the author respects not only me, but also the magazine and they are making an actual effort towards getting published by Dead Fern.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
MC: It sounds cliche, but I look for something that grabs my attention and signifies "hey, this is worth a reader's time". If it isn't engaging from the start, it doesn't make for a fun read to others who will be seeing it on the site. I get a lot of submissions and Dead Fern is a solo project so I'm the only one reading everything, and the pieces that have the best chance at getting published are the ones that stand out. Understandably though, not every piece goes from 0 to 100 in the first few lines, but I would hope that if the attention grabber isn't in the intro, it comes up pretty quickly in the body.
SQF: Is there a type/genre of submission you’d like to receive more of?
MC: I would love to see more horror/ psychological thriller, and dark realism fiction pieces. I love every piece of fiction I've ever published on DFP no matter the genre and often go back and re-read them just because they're all so good, but these are the two genres that I really look out for. As a young kid, horror movies were my favorite to watch, and as an adult, dark realism is my favorite to read, so I have a deep appreciation for these two specific genres. I know that both of these can be kind of hard to place due to the topics that come with them and so writers don't submit them often (at least from what I've seen), so I always get excited when one gets sent my way.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
MC: It isn't a question as much as it is a statement, but I would like to remind writers to reach out to magazines if they aren't comfortable with something, notice a mistake, or even just have questions. There have been a couple times when I don't catch a misspelling in a piece or there are formatting issues upon publication and the writer reaches out about it and profusely apologizes to me for the inconvenience, but it's your work and you deserve to have it seen the way you want so never be afraid to bring concerns up to an editor.
Thank you, Megan. We all appreciate you taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
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