A
Bad Penny Review publishes
fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction—with a particular interest
in forms that exist somewhere between. It is published quarterly
online and once a year as a physical object.
(Ceased publication)
(Ceased publication)
SQF:
Why did you start this magazine?
A
Bad Penny Review: Despite
the huge (and ever proliferating) number of journals out there,
surprisingly few publish the work that ABPR finds the most exciting:
visual poetics, the conceptual, the varying forms and non-forms of
the innovative/experimental/transgressive. So that provides some
justification for our existence. But more than that, journals
generally have been slow to exploit the shifting boundaries between
the analog and the digital: the uncertainty as to what a physical
object can offer over its digital representation or, to flip the
equation, why digital representations are assigned
(cultural/economic) value at all. This, I think, is what we exist to
grapple with.
SQF:
What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
ABPR:
We're looking for the
unfamiliar, for anything that surprises us. In terms of aesthetics,
the quickest perusal of one of our issues (even without reading a
word, frankly) could offer some idea as to what attracts us formally.
SQF:
What most often turns you off to a submission?
ABPR:
This is a familiar
editorial complaint and an echo of above, but when a submitter has
clearly never visited the journal's website, that's an annoyance.
Take that 45 seconds to give us a look!
SQF:
Do you provide comments when you reject a submission?
ABPR:
Only if it's a piece that
we seriously considered publishing but didn't make the final cut.
SQF:
What magazines do you read?
ABPR:
Conjunctions, Jacket2,
Fence, Harp & Altar, Lana Turner,
and many more. I also spend as much time as possible perusing the
archives of UbuWeb:
if it were a journal, it might be the best in the world.
SQF:
What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't?
And how would you answer it?
ABPR:
How can I, as an author who
submits to A Bad Penny
Review, support your fine
journal? Great question! We don't receive any outside funding: our
entire budget for future publications comes from the sales of the
previous ones. So take a look at our physical publications and
consider buying one. Or just send us at least 5 bucks, and we'll pick
something out for you.
Thank
you, Johnny and Matthew. We all appreciate you taking time from your
busy schedule to participate in this project.
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POST: 10/31—Six Questions for Mike Lafontaine Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Vending Machine Press
