Solarpunk Magazine publishes fiction (500-7,500 words), poetry (to 5 pages), nonfiction (2,000-3,000 words), cover art, and interior art. Issues may be themed. Read the complete guidelines here.
SQF: How did you become involved with this magazine?
J.D. Harlock: I got to know the magazine's EiC and founder Justine after my poem "A Ceremony Centuries in the Making" was published in the first issue of their anarchist magazine Black Cat. The pieces I submitted for the second issue were rejected, but I noticed that he had a call out for editors for his solarpunk-themed magazine. Considering that he chose to publish my poem and not the flash fiction piece I sent him (i.e., Dear Comrades, eventually published in Every Day Fiction), I applied to be the poetry editor even though I would've been just as interested to be one of the fiction or nonfiction editors. I was that excited about the prospect and was dying to contribute to the solarpunk movement in any way I could—even if I was stuck in the crumbling Middle East. After I passed the interview, I was asked if I was comfortable sharing editorial duties with another poet, M. Darusha Wehm, and considering that she was a Nebula-nominated writer, I had no trouble saying yes. For a nobody from (and stuck in) the Middle East, getting to work alongside a team of diverse, talented writers and editors has been a dream come true.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
JDH: Suitability (1), skill (2), and style(3).
If it's not solarpunk, we just can't publish it. We're Solarpunk Magazine, after all, though we are flexible on what that could be since the genre hasn't been around that long, and we want to push the medium forward.
Art to me is a demonstration of skill, not a “pot of message.” I care more about whether the poet is competent than if he/she/they is/are saying anything profound. The main determinant of that competency is whether the poet achieves his aim with that poem. If someone sets out to make something fun and silly and actually accomplishes that (it’s a lot harder than it seems), then that, to me, is as great a work of art as any gut-wrenching tragedy out there.
You need to put some thought into the writing style you use for each piece and make sure that it helped you achieve your aim. Workmanlike prose and poetry bore me to no end, and I consider plenty of lauded genre fiction figures to be mediocre, if not outright bad, writers because of it. But, even though I might be a “style over substance” kind of reader, I’ll always prefer and even champion works that are in possession of both.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
JDH: With Solarpunk Magazine, it's submissions that aren't even spec-fic. I can see how some of the spec-fic submissions we get can be construed as solarpunk, but when it's not even SFF, why would you even bother submitting it to us?!
SQF: What do you look for in the opening stanza(s) of a submission?
JDH: Because of how much of a problem getting submissions that aren't solarpunk has become, I immediately scan the poem for signs that it's SFF, at the very least, before I read it properly.
SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex's sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?
JDH: As long as it’s solarpunk (or even lunarpunk), the sky is the limit with us. We’re even open to both humor and poetry that rhymes and were seriously considering a humorous poem that we thought could work as a solarpunk piece for the first issue before that fell through.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
JDH: I wish you’d asked me what my favorite solarpunk work of art is, and it’s the criminally obscure manga Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou that’s never been translated into English before! If you want to read it, you have to find a fan translation online, but trust me, it’s worth it!
Thank you., J.D. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
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