Editor Interview: MadHat Annual

a wedding feast

American Letters & Commentary, Caketrain, Diagram, Dreaming Methods, Drunken Boat, Journal of Experimental Fiction, Otoliths, Action,Yes, Jiving Ladybug, Apostrophecast, Exquisite Corpse, Fiction International, Gargoyle, Unlikely Stories, and Wheelhouse

Samuel Beckett, Don DeLillo, Donald Barthelme, Isabel Allende, Gertrude Stein, Franz Kafka, Lewis Carroll, Jorge Luis Borges, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Rikki Ducornet, Jane Austen, Albert Camus, Guy de Maupassant, Thomas Hardy, Italo Calvino, Leonora Carrington, Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, Dorothy Parker, Rainer Maria Rilke, Anna Akhmatova, early W. S. Merwin, John Berryman, Yves Bonnefoy, John Ashbery, Joseph Brodsky, Tristan Tzara, Andre and Elisa Breton

First, we publish a wider range of "genres" than the vast majority of online journals: fiction; poetry (including concrete/visual); drama; whatnots (the undefinable); wit and whimsy; digital films and video's; cartoons; "creative non-fiction;" book reviews; columns; and texts in audio. Second, we "marry" texts with audio and art. Each author's work is accompanied by original, custom-made music or author's recitation, or both, as well as custom-made artwork. We also offer unique features, including showcases of works by authors and artists from specific countries. In our next issue, we will feature contemporary Russian writers, as well as "visual music" and "moving words." Our current issue, the Mad Bunkers' mash, which is still evolving, is a collaborative project by Mad Hatters' Review and Bunk Magazine. The journal is surprising and expansive, collaborative and anti-cliquish; we look for fresh, original writing. I'm always open to new ideas and projects and refuse to publish the same author/s in consecutive issues, unless we're publishing works in serial form.

Familiarize yourself with our journal to get a sense of what we like. Start with our "About" page and peruse "Archives."

Fresh, surprising, and linguistically delicious.

They don't read our guidelines thoroughly, and many submit during closed periods. Also, it's obvious that the majority of submitters are unfamiliar with the journal's philosophical and aesthetic inclinations.

Our submissions form asks for a bio. Cover letters are unnecessary. The quality and originality of the writing is far more important than a list of credits, but we're curious to see where the author has published.

I can tell when a piece is a fit after reading the first few sentences or maybe one to three paragraphs. If I see something like: "Arthur always cried when his mother left for work at the tire factory. He hated his aunt Mary and would lay around all day sucking his thumb and watching cartoons with his dog Miffy," I will toss the submission in the Reject folder, unless I have the patience to read further and see that the story may actually be a clever satire that might fit as "wit and whimsy." Generally, a submission has to demonstrate the author's delight in language from the first sentence or two.

We have genre/category editors and guest editors who employ their own yardsticks. I have the final say. I evaluate submissions in terms of originality, linguistic dexterity, depth of imagination and psychological/philosophical sophistication/intelligence.