How does one become a literary magazine editor?
July 4, 2017 4:41 PM Subscribe
Hello. I am wondering how can one become a literary magazine editor? How do you build your way to the top? What degrees and skills should I be aiming for? I know a lot of online literary editors are mostly voluntary positions. Yet, this is something I have always wanted to do -- I just do not know where to start exactly. I was recently accepted to become a volunteer reader for an online literary magazine and that is probably the lowest ranking -- I guess one must build a gradual pace up the literary ladder. I cannot really afford to start my own online literary magazine since it can cost quite a bit. Maybe finding people that wish to start one might be an idea. I am eager to hear people's opinions constrictive and criticisms. Thank-you.
Response by poster: @Polycarp Thank-you for the extensive feedback -- much appreciated. Yes, I meant literary magazines like Brick, Harper, Fiddlehead -- etc. Yeah, I am thinking of doing a MFA next year or two if there is time. I agree - the job pool is scarce for this kind of thing and most people have to either know someone or get into it academically in order to work for a literary magazine. Thanks!
posted by RearWindow at 6:11 PM on July 4, 2017
posted by RearWindow at 6:11 PM on July 4, 2017
Mark Jarman, the editor of the Fiddlehead, became a respected short story writer in Canada before he became editor. He also got a teaching job at UNB. He attended UVic's Creative Writing programme back in the early 80's; at the time it was considered cutting-edge. It still is, although many other writing departments across Canada, including UBC, have learned from and adopted UVic's model. Jarman then went on to get an MFA from Iowa (where the "dirty realism" short story writers like Carver and Ford studied and taught).
Anyway, editing a literary journal is a plumb job. You help decide the direction of the culture, right? So you need to publish, you need to be part of the community, you need to teach, all that stuff.
I remember when I was at UVic Creative Writing, some of the undergrads got co-op positions at Malahat Review; those folks are now part of the literary establishment in Canada.
I cannot support my family writing Carveresque short stories, and I don't have a Masters, so I don't write short stories and I do not teach (99% of 'successful' writers support themselves by doing something else, typically teaching).
posted by My Dad at 6:23 PM on July 4, 2017 [4 favorites]
Anyway, editing a literary journal is a plumb job. You help decide the direction of the culture, right? So you need to publish, you need to be part of the community, you need to teach, all that stuff.
I remember when I was at UVic Creative Writing, some of the undergrads got co-op positions at Malahat Review; those folks are now part of the literary establishment in Canada.
I cannot support my family writing Carveresque short stories, and I don't have a Masters, so I don't write short stories and I do not teach (99% of 'successful' writers support themselves by doing something else, typically teaching).
posted by My Dad at 6:23 PM on July 4, 2017 [4 favorites]
I have an acquaintance who started an online literary magazine. She focused on our very small regional area (about 6 counties) and solicited stories from established writers, newspaper folks, college students, etc. She ran yearly contests for stories from high school students, college students, and "new voices." She paid nothing, but she had a good eye for quality and it was reasonably well-read in the area (she networked with bookstores and art galleries and the city councils and the newspapers and so on), and being published in her regional magazine was a boost for authors looking to be published in statewide magazines and superregional magazines ("midwestern fiction"), and a good resume line for HS and college students.
National magazines have never heard of her or her magazine, but state and regional magazines have, and colleges in the area have, and it's a stepping stone for people from her little local literary magazine to the statewide literary magazines out of U of IL to national publications.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:33 PM on July 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
National magazines have never heard of her or her magazine, but state and regional magazines have, and colleges in the area have, and it's a stepping stone for people from her little local literary magazine to the statewide literary magazines out of U of IL to national publications.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:33 PM on July 4, 2017 [2 favorites]
some of the undergrads got co-op positions at Malahat Review; those folks are now part of the literary establishment in Canada
I remember this from UVic creative writing, too. Malahat "discovered" a lot of writers by publishing their own student editors--a questionable practice. However, if you're hell bent on making it into the Can Lit establishment UVic is a good program for you....be prepared to kiss up a lot.
Honestly, you're not going to make your living from being the editor of a lit journal unless it is something along the lines of the New Yorker, Paris Review, The Walrus, etc etc. And those venues are very different from something like the Fiddlehead, which is technically an academic journal funded by UNB. So, you have two options: go the academic route, or make connections--ie. you either get graduate degrees and a tenure-track position that may or may not include editorial duties, or you build your reputation in the world of publishing and editing--not necessarily by being a writer, but by starting with a plumb internship at a place like the New Yorker, Paris Review, or Walrus. For the American magazines it helps to have an ivy league pedigree. There are no guarantees with either of these routes.
However, you can start working as an unpaid editor for many excellent lower-tier journals right now, which it sounds like you're already doing. You can build your reputation up that way, and simply gain experience in reading, which you'll have to do a lot of. You can go to AWP, the literary conference, and haunt the bookfair to get a good idea of what journals are out there and which magazines are looking for readers. You can look into where your favorite authors published when they were first starting out--not when they reached New Yorker/Harper's level, but before--and find out how you become a reader for those magazines. Typically this will be by becoming a student at whatever school publishes a given magazine. It sounds like you like the idea of being an editor but don't have a lot of familiarity with the way journals are run or which journals, specifically, have an aesthetic you enjoy. You probably need to reverse this and seek out opportunities at journals that fascinate you.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 10:49 PM on July 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
I remember this from UVic creative writing, too. Malahat "discovered" a lot of writers by publishing their own student editors--a questionable practice. However, if you're hell bent on making it into the Can Lit establishment UVic is a good program for you....be prepared to kiss up a lot.
Honestly, you're not going to make your living from being the editor of a lit journal unless it is something along the lines of the New Yorker, Paris Review, The Walrus, etc etc. And those venues are very different from something like the Fiddlehead, which is technically an academic journal funded by UNB. So, you have two options: go the academic route, or make connections--ie. you either get graduate degrees and a tenure-track position that may or may not include editorial duties, or you build your reputation in the world of publishing and editing--not necessarily by being a writer, but by starting with a plumb internship at a place like the New Yorker, Paris Review, or Walrus. For the American magazines it helps to have an ivy league pedigree. There are no guarantees with either of these routes.
However, you can start working as an unpaid editor for many excellent lower-tier journals right now, which it sounds like you're already doing. You can build your reputation up that way, and simply gain experience in reading, which you'll have to do a lot of. You can go to AWP, the literary conference, and haunt the bookfair to get a good idea of what journals are out there and which magazines are looking for readers. You can look into where your favorite authors published when they were first starting out--not when they reached New Yorker/Harper's level, but before--and find out how you become a reader for those magazines. Typically this will be by becoming a student at whatever school publishes a given magazine. It sounds like you like the idea of being an editor but don't have a lot of familiarity with the way journals are run or which journals, specifically, have an aesthetic you enjoy. You probably need to reverse this and seek out opportunities at journals that fascinate you.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 10:49 PM on July 4, 2017 [1 favorite]
Start as an intern, probably unpaid. Here's the information on Harper's, for example.
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:14 AM on July 13, 2017
posted by The corpse in the library at 7:14 AM on July 13, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
If you go the academic route, you'd want an MFA or a PhD (or both); there are very few jobs in writing programs relative to the number of MFAs that are minted each year. Starting your own is way cheaper than getting an MFA, since you don't have to quit your job and there's no question of funding. Even the successful ones are typically run on a volunteer/mostly volunteer basis.
posted by Polycarp at 5:16 PM on July 4, 2017 [4 favorites]