Six Questions for Jill Khoury and Jen Stein Hauptmann, Editors, Rogue Agent

Rogue Agent publishes poetry to 10 pages. “What is it like to live in your body? We want work that answers this question.” Read the complete guidelines here.

SQF: Why did you start this magazine?

Jill & Jen: We believe that sharing embodied experiences with each other across gender, race, sexuality, dis/ability, and other identities increases understanding between those with disparate experiences. At the time we started, there were very few literary journals that dealt with embodiment. Now I feel like there are many more.

 

 

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

Jill & Jen: Does it conform to our theme “what is it like to live in your body?” Using fresh language / taking risks with language. Strong and surprising imagery.

 

 

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

Jill & Jen: Besides the obvious things like racism, homophobia sexism, ableism, and other hate speech— we don’t like when people send writing about somebody else’s embodied experience. Like when you write a poem about your father’s Alzheimer’s or your son’s autism, that may be fine for other journals, but we are looking for your embodied narrative. Secondly, objectifying women. From our end, it seems like men write women as sex objects so frequently that they don’t even notice they’re doing it. Lastly, when embodiment isn’t evident… like someone writing metaphorically about Sisyphus or a more obscure Greek mythic figure. Those poems never make it in.

 

 

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

 

Jill & Jen: We just want to be invited into the poem to read the rest of it. There has to be something that piques our interest. If you have to spend two stanzas explaining the situation of the poem, it’s less likely to be published by us.

 

 

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

 

Jill & Jen: I think the example of gratuitous sex is a good one. The same with over-the-top violence. Fatphobia is also a hard sell.

 

 

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

 

Jill & Jen: What do you wish submitters would pay special attention to? And the answer would be our theme. Please read some back issues to get an idea for how we define embodied poetry. 

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