February’s Lit Mag Spotlight is shining on The Malahat Review! Established in 1967, Malahat is among Canada’s leading literary journals and publishes an international array of poetry, fiction, essays, and the occasional interview. Check out their ideal submission, what makes them cringe, and then…submit your best work!
CONTEST: Leave a comment on this blog post by February 26 to enter to win a one-year subscription to The Malahat Review. This contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winner! Thank you to all who participated!
Give us the lowdown on your journal’s mission.
The official mission statement: To publish new work by emerging and established writers of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from Canada and abroad; to provide critical insight through reviews of current Canadian books; and to increase the audience for and add prestige to Canadian writing.
The unofficial mission statement: to be a good read!
Describe your ideal submission in 15 words or less.
A shrewdly written, mind-altering poem, story, or essay affirming—yet also reinventing—what contemporary literature is.
Tell us about a piece you recently published that got the staff really excited. Why did you love it? Why did it strike a chord?
“In the Boxcar,” a translated excerpt from the Canadian Yiddish author Chava Rosenfarb’s last novel, Letters from Abrasha. It appears in our Autumn 2014 issue, “At Home in Translation,” a theme issue that celebrates Canadian translators. Translated from Yiddish by her daughter, Goldie Morgantaler, it catches her characters being deported to Auschwitz. It’s so simply and directly written that it neither unduly plays on the readers’ sympathies, nor does it leave them in any way uninvolved. It will soon appear online in the New York-based magazine, Tablet. We all felt it was an honor to publish this spellbinding work.
Regarding submissions: What’s the most common turnoff that you encounter?
Bad grammar: especially the inability to use the verb “to lie” correctly, a failing of even award-winning authors and their commercial-house editors.
What’s the most common oversight in terms of submission guidelines?
Even when asked to, writers submitting prose don’t also provide a word count for their submissions.
Why is your journal awesome?
For almost fifty years The Malahat Review has been one of the most internationally recognized literary magazines published in Canada. It is also well-recognized at home, winning more National Magazine Awards (the Canadian ones) than any other literary magazine.
Where can readers find your submission guidelines?
Follow The Malahat Review on Twitter, and find them on Facebook.
CONTEST: Leave a comment on this blog post by February 26 to enter to win a one-year subscription to The Malahat Review. This contest is now closed. Congratulations to our winner! Thank you to all who participated!
Thanks for sharing a few of your favourite (and least favourite things). Stuff to consider when I send my next submission! 🙂
(21 words and one smiley)
Katherine
Oof… I can never remember the rules for “to lie” and “to lay,” no matter how many times I look them up. Time for a refresher! Thanks for the insight.
I have yet to submit any of my work but hopefully 2015 is the year I face my fears but I can say that reading literary journals really does help. Canada has been on my travel bucket list this year and now this popped up. I definitely believe in serendipity 😉 This is a great blog post – very to the point, insightful and of course helpful for us aspiring writers. Thank you!
Great Blog!
How amazing! I would love to read this.
“Shrewdly written”
Interesting term and one worth exploring
Love The Malahat Review!
Thanks for the tips! I am getting up the nerve to submit and hope to do so soon!
Thanks for publishing one of the most interesting literary journals out there!
So pleased I discovered this publication and am getting back into writing.
50 years and I never heard of you. Guess I had to be ready to look for you. Glad I’ve found you! Catch you later…
Love the description of the ideal submission. Will strive for that. 🙂