Where has February gone? Even with an extra day this month, there’s less than a week left to submit your haiku & senryu to Kingfisher for issue 9! I’m about a week behind on responses, so if you sent me a submission around Valentine’s Day, you’ll be hearing from me very soon.
So, what happens between the moment when you bravely send off a submission and when you hear back from me? I’m sure that every editor has a different process, and some are likely more streamlined than mine, but here’s what I do.
Every morning (and throughout the day, because yes, I’m a bit obsessive during submissions month), I check my Kingfisher email. When I see a new submission in my inbox, it’s like a mini Christmas. I can see who the submission is from, but I don’t know what’s inside until I open it.
Upon opening the email, I copy/paste the submission into the Word document where I keep all submissions for that issue (yes, it’s a very long doc). This includes the poems, the poet’s name (or the name they wish to see in print), and their location. Then I copy/paste the poet’s info into my Excel file. I also add the number of poems the poet submitted and the date I received the submission. It sounds like a lot of work, but it keeps things organized for me, and I love a good spreadsheet.
With all of that information recorded, I finally get to read the submission. I always enjoy reading brief notes from poets, whether I know them or not, simply as a way to connect, or perhaps to give context to the poems that follow. Sometimes, people will mention how they discovered the journal, other times, they’ll mention that they’re new to haiku, or that they’ve been writing haiku for decades. No matter who the poet is or their experience with haiku, it all comes down to the poems themselves and how well they will fit my particular aesthetic for the journal.
I read the poems as they appear in the email in case there are any formatting peculiarities that didn’t translate to the Word doc during the copy/paste. Then I glance at the Word doc to make sure everything looks okay. Over the next week or so, I’ll read the submission multiple times, looking for haiku & senryu to accept, and there are lots of factors that go into this decision, some of which you can find on the Submissions page: https://kingfisherjournal.com/submissions/ Since I’m the only editor of the journal, I have to trust my gut. And I won’t lie: sending out rejections is my least favorite part of being an editor.
It’s not easy to send your poems out into the world and then have to wonder for days or weeks (or with mainstream poetry journals, months) whether any of your poems made it into the journal, so I work hard to respond to submissions within 10 days of receipt. On average, I receive around 300 submissions per issue, and the heaviest times are at the beginning and end of the submission period.
Speaking of which, it’s time to get back to logging submissions. I’ve got 8 new ones waiting in my inbox, and I can’t wait to read them! If you haven’t sent yours yet, you’ve got until the end of Leap Day to do so. Submission guidelines are here: https://kingfisherjournal.com/submissions/ Good luck!
Hi Tanya, Many thanks for this vivid and transparent account of your reading process. I appreciate getting such an intimate perspective on the day-to-day work of an editor. It makes both acceptances and rejections more personal. best, Eric Sundquist