Six Questions for Keely Gardiner, Managing Editor, Flash Fiction Magazine

Flash Fiction Magazine champions original, creative, and engaging works of fiction which run between 300-1000 words. The stories can be of any genre, but the emphasis should be placed on a complete story. We need to see a narrative arc, conflict, and character development. Flash Fiction Magazine accepts submissions all year around. Our general submissions are always open and free. We also offer paid developmental feedback options, as well as running flash fiction contests, with a 1st place prize of $500! Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: You started your association with Flash Fiction Magazine as a Reader, I believe. What is it about FFM that made you want to become Managing Editor?

Keely Gardiner: I have been with FFM six or seven years now and in that time, I have watched the magazine go from strength to strength. Our team has grown exponentially too, and I love working beside such excellent, skilled, and creative people who care about polishing and publishing quality flash fiction. 

Becoming Managing Editor was not something I planned, but I’m proud to be heading up our stellar team, supporting them and our FFM authors.   




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

KG: 

1. A killer opening line. I want to be drawn into a narrative straightaway. Be it an usual premise, vivid image or compelling narrative voice, I need to be hooked.

2. Emotional resonance. The narrative needs to move or connect with the reader on an emotional level. This doesn’t mean the story needs to be sad, more that what happens in the piece should carry weight and meaning. My favourite thing is when a story continues to rattle around in my head long after reading. 

3. Stories that seek immediacy and brevity because we are a flash fiction magazine.


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

KG: As a reader, I hate to be told everything. Part of the fun and challenge of reading is connecting all the dots from what the author shows you. The strongest stories work to strike the perfect balance between showing vs telling.

Equally, this applies to twist endings. Twists are so difficult to pull off without feeling contrived, and there’s nothing worse than getting to the end of a story and feeling lied to or tricked by the author. 





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

KG: 
See the “top three things” question and answer above. But if I had to add to that, in the opening paragraph of a flash story I want to feel grounded in a place and time or an event. The opening of a story should act as the foundation of the narrative. I like to be dropped into a story where the author uses concrete and specific description to immerse the reader in a scene. Show us clear and crisp details.




SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?

KG: 

FFM doesn’t publish erotica, children’s lit or fan fiction. Although, a well-written sex scene that enhances the story is all good. 

FFM is open to most genres and styles as long as the writing is strong and there’s a clear narrative arc. That’s one of the great things about FFM, we pride ourselves on publishing an eclectic mix of stories, however, writing about writing is usually a hard sell for us. It’s not that writing about writing can’t be great, it’s just that we receive such a large volume of this type of story that we’re all burnt out on them. 



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

KG: I always double back to word count. We have a strict 300 -1000 word limit, but we received a lot of stories that we can’t consider for publication because they’re either under or over our word count. It’s frustrating having to reject stories because they’re too long or too short. Checking the word count is usually one of the first things we do, so, in all likelihood, if you send a submission outside of our limits it won’t even be read. Turning away good writing for what might be viewed as a technicality to some could seem harsh, but our readers and editors are busy people and don’t have the time to cut down lengthy stories or stretch out pieces that fall short.




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

Six Questions for Scott Bolohan, Editor-in-Chief, The Twin Bill

The Twin Bill publishes fiction (1,000 to 3,000 words), creative nonfiction, poetry, and art. “The Twin Bill is a quarterly online literary baseball journal founded in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. We celebrate the rich history of the game while also recognizing its vibrant present.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Scott Bolohan: At the beginning of the pandemic, my girlfriend and I both got Covid. I spent those days watching Ken Burns' Baseball and found it gave me comfort. I wanted to write about it, but I didn't see many places where I could. So I started The Twin Bill and quickly realized I couldn't handle it all myself, so I reached out to the best fiction, poetry, and essay writers I knew and they agreed to become editors. I worked as a sportswriter for years, currently coach high school baseball, and work for MLB teams, so I knew there are people who have baseball stories to share. I truly believe everyone, no matter how big of a fan they are, has a baseball story.

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

SB: 

1. It might seem obvious, but baseball needs to be in the submission. You'd be surprised by how often the submissions aren't.

2. That said, the more originality in the use of baseball, the better. Play-by-play of games are fine—and they can be very good—but they don't really surprise us and I think they can sometimes lose the human element behind the game. We love more experimental pieces. Pieces that are about baseball, but also about something else are ones we gravitate toward.

3. We love pieces from and about different perspectives. One of the things we've tried to be very conscious about is the perception of baseball is it's a very old white man sport. Yet, three of our four most-read pieces have been by women. We've also published a number of fiction pieces about female baseball players. We're constantly trying to seek these voices and stories out. We love getting pieces from people who have never written about baseball before. Baseball is always called America's pastime, but we also want submissions that reflect the present.

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

SB: Definitely well-trodden topics. We've received so many submissions about going to a game with your dad, playing catch, and old teams and players. That's not to trivialize those experiences. They're really important to people. But after a couple of years of publishing, it just doesn't seem fresh. That's not to say we wouldn't publish a piece about going to your first game, but something about it has to tell a story and be unique in some way.

As mentioned before, we also want to show that baseball is for everyone, so anything that belittles people is an easy rejection.

And finally with fiction, the word count is really important. Our fiction editor had somewhere around 150,000 words to read last issue. We have a little leeway on 3,000 words, but when it starts getting more than that, it's a hard no out of the amount of his free time Bryan already spends editing. While we pay our contributors, none of the editors are paid yet, so this is all done out of love for baseball and writing on top of everything else we do. 

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

SB: I hate to say that we can usually tell if we want a piece or not from the beginning of the submission, but we probably can. So much of it has to do with the style. Oddly a lot of times when people write about baseball, they suddenly write like journalists with press hats from the 1920s. With CNF, we see a lot of writers explaining baseball or a big moment that honestly all of our readers know already. CNF in particular seems to be a nostalgia trap. With poetry and fiction, it's mostly about style. We're also suckers for a bit of humor. Baseball is fun, after all. 

SQF: Is there a type/genre work you’d like to see more of in your submissions?

SB: I can remember early on we got a comic submission from Andy Lattimer and we weren't quite sure what to do with it. But then I realized, I'm running the magazine, and if we want to run something, there's no rules that we can't. We were thrilled to publish our first play earlier this year. So just because something may not fit into our call, we'd still love to see it and try to find a home for it. I'm always impressed with what our contributors can come up with.

I guess it's not really a genre, but more of a subject. We're always hoping to get more submissions about baseball today, whether it's current players or what it's like playing or being a fan now. Someone should write about players like Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis, Jr., and Julio Rodriguez—the incredible players of today. 

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

SB: So why should we submit to you?

We're all writers ourselves, and we've tried to make The Twin Bill a place we would want to be published. We're really proud to have original art for each piece. We spend a lot of time trying to make each piece look as good as possible. We want the writer to be able to show it to people and be proud. We submit our contributors for awards and do everything we can to promote them and hope they'll appreciate the care we give to their writing. Plus, baseball and writing are great.

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

Six Questions for Samantha Ng, Editor, Aôthen Magazine





Aôthen Magazine publishes flash fiction to 1,000 words, essays to 2,500 words, poetry, photography, art, and classical translation extracts to 1,000 words. “Aôthen Magazine (named after the Doric Greek term for the earliest dawn) is a magazine that is dedicated to all kinds of Graeco-Roman classics-inspired content.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Samantha Ng: For the most part, I started Aôthen because I wanted to make a publication solely focused on the classical world, which would allow works about more niche myths and histories to be published, when they might be rejected by other publications for referencing aspects of classics that are unfamiliar to the general public. I also wanted to create something that would allow people who haven’t been formally educated in classics to access the community and the knowledge, especially because I have personally experienced the struggle of trying to teach myself the subject. 

A more personal reason was so I could grow closer with the literary community. I’ve been reading and submitting to literary magazines since I was about twelve, and it’s always been a goal of mine to run a successful publication myself. Plus, more magazines means more opportunities for everyone!

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

SN: The three things are:

• Something actually related to classics! In essence, anything to do with Ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt. 

• I really love pieces that approach myths through a new lens; anything with a modern twist, a new perspective, a reimagined ending, etc.

• Poetry and prose that stretches the boundaries of their genre. Anything abstract or a little weird is always a good read and very refreshing. Poems or stories that are super short, have unique formatting, or take inspiration from artworks are very sought after here!

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

SN: I find that a lot of poetry about classics tends to be more “traditional”, in the sense that there’s a lot of purple language and rhyming. Since there’s a lot of writing like this in circulation, I don’t like to publish anything that has a strict rhyme or rhythm scheme. 

With prose, a hard to follow plot is a definite turn off, we’re looking for pieces that capture attention and don’t confuse readers by lingering too long on small details. Something that doesn’t pack a punch until the end is also not ideal, there’s a level of consistency that we’re looking for, since we don’t want readers to lose interest before the final paragraph.

In general, I really don’t like pieces that go into extreme depth about sex, assault, or any sort of violence. While these are definitely themes in classical myths and history, protecting readers comes first, and these things feel unnecessary when there are other ways to add impact to creative work.

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

SN: First, I make sure that everything fits the theme of the magazine, as we get a lot of off-topic submissions.

Afterwards, I usually look for anything that makes the submission stand out; are the characters unfamiliar? Is there interesting language or formatting? Has the topic of the submission been covered by a piece I’ve already read or accepted? Apart from these things, I also look at the writer’s style. I think about whether or not it sounds too formal, whether I can properly imagine scenes that they create, and whether the piece is visually appealing (eg. has appropriate paragraph and stanza lengths). 

One other thing I look for is technical skill. Of course, a stray spelling error or missed punctuation mark is no big deal, but it’s nice to see proper grammar and use of vocabulary. I also love it when people use em-dashes properly instead of hyphens! Many people tend to mix the two up.

SQF: Many editors list erotica, or sex for sex sake, as hard sells. What are hard sells for your publication?

SN: I would say cliched topics are quite hard sells for me, in particular, modern retellings of Narcissus. I’ve seen many pieces about Narcissus reimagined as a teenage girl, or as a modern man, and while these aren’t inherently bad concepts, it’s hard to make them stand out against the others.

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

   

SN: What are your future plans for Aôthen?

Aôthen has been running for 2 quarters, and I’ve started to think about how to expand and maintain the publication in the future. 

In the near future, I’m hoping to expand the team and take on some media volunteers as well as some copy editors to help make work more efficient. I also hope to release some merchandise to fund the printing and advertising costs for the magazine. 

Farther along the line, I want to continue improving the quality of Aôthen until I can get it shelved in bookstores or magazine stores–that’s really the end goal for the publication! 

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

Six Questions for David Galef, Editor-in-Chief, Vestal Review-Update

Vestal Review publishes flash fiction of no longer than 500 words. It runs a few flash-related interviews and reviews, too, also limited to 500 words or fewer. “We pay $50 to contributors.”

This interview has been updated with corrected and new information. You can read it here.

Six Questions for Lydia Paar and Lindsay Kelsey, Co-Founders, NOMADartx Review

The NOMADartx Review publishes fiction, personal essays and poetry (preferably to 5,000 words), industry specific articles (topics may include ideas for selling pieces, the artistic process, how to build resumes and portfolios, etc.) critiques/interviews/reviews, and visual art. Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Lydia Paar: We started this magazine through our website, which was built to help creative people working in different fields of practice connect, network, and learn from each other. We truly mean all fields of creativity: the more traditionally conceived “art” forms but also things like cooking or gardening or architecture or textiles. We created the journal as another interactive component to the site that already offered posting and sharing abilities around subjects like job-sharing, grant-sharing, creative service offering, etc. The journal features writing and visual art, but we especially welcome writing and visual art that ventures into territory where different creative disciplines and the creative process, as a whole, are explored.

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

Lydia (writing editor): I love writing that takes the right amount of time and space for the content being explored: not rambling if the content doesn’t demand it, not so short that it feels incomplete or unfinished.

I also love submissions that indicate the author has familiarity with the goals of the magazine and has attempted to send us something relevant to the creative life or process (in their interpretation), especially if they are focused on a creative form we have fewer submissions about: Chelsey Clammer’s essay, “Knit Beyond,” about knitting as a means to cope with heartbreak, or Lily Kosmicki’s “The Circadian Diary,” about her journaling practice, for example, were thrilling in this regard. 

Thirdly, I love writing that engages with larger issues: not just one character who experiences something like heartbreak, in fiction for instance, but a character whose experience creates questions or learning about the nature of people or the nature of culture.

Lindsay Kelsey (visual art editor): At this point in NOMAD’s journey, most submissions have been literary. We are looking for more visual entries, possibly repeat contributors, and works that not only compliment written pieces but create a discussion on their own. 

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

Lydia: writing that contains overt or subtle racism or sexism. Works that seem self-aggrandizing. Also, for me, work that features a lot of drug use or drinking, unless it’s undertaken meaningfully. We’ve seen a lot of the “depressed/ecstatic” inebriated character in written submissions, but often the fact that the character is inebriated doesn’t contribute to character development or change, and then feels like a crutch or a gimmick. Lastly, work that seems like it’s been sent our way without any indication the author read about the goals and focus of the magazine…we mostly pass on.

Lindsay: Tropes. Beautiful lost women with trembling upper lips gripping a sweaty glass of vodka with clinking ice about to be saved by the unconventionally (conventionally) handsome man stepping in the corner. Visual tropes, like B&W photographs of abandoned swing sets or rusty cars in the forest. I also struggle with violence (especially rape and racism) that doesn’t add to character and plot development or create a worthwhile discussion in visual pieces.




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

Lydia: Something surprising.

Lindsay: Something that I have to read twice. Once to understand, and secondly, to appreciate. I can apply this to visual art as well. I want to have a conversation in my head with the piece that I am looking at.

SQF: Why types of submissions would you like to receive more of?

Lydia: We’d love to receive submissions from a wider range of writers: younger and older, of varying ability, of different heritage and socio-economic backgrounds, more international writers, writers with specific niche interests or obsessions, etc. We also tend to receive a lot of poetry and fiction, which is wonderful, but I’d also love to see more nonfiction/essay work, and more genre-blended or hybridized forms.

Lindsay: More visual submissions!




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

L&L: There aren’t any other questions we’d like to answer, but we thank you for showcasing our journal. We hope folks take a read when they can, and submit their own work! And tell their friends! 




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