What the hell is this?
Our fiction team in conversation
There may be no accounting for taste, but since our taste determines what gets published in our pages, we feel we have an obligation to try. We constantly receive impressive fiction submissions that we nonetheless feel are not right for The Drift. To demystify our editorial process, Associate Fiction Editor Livia Wood spoke with our fiction assistants Kanyin Ajayi and Andres Vaamonde about what they look for — and look away from — when they’re reading through the slush pile.
Livia Wood: What do you look for in a story?
Andres Vaamonde: I look for a voice that’s sure of itself — that feels confident and poised in what it is trying to articulate — but one that I’m not completely sure of myself. If I know precisely where a story is going, I’m less interested.
Kanyin Ajayi: Initially, I was always reading at the level of sentence: looking for sentences that just popped off the page, that were clever, rhythmic, funny, and occasionally even erotic or sensual. Now, I’m also looking at the journey of the reading experience. To what extent do things change over the course of the story? Do they change in meaningful ways, funny ways, sad ways? I feel like the stories that we publish should be shaking something up.
Wood: I’m looking for a really strong character. Stories without strong characters often can’t really survive — the story loses itself without them.
Is there anything that, if you see it in a submission email, you’re immediately uninterested, or you get a sense that it’s not going to be the right fit?
Vaamonde: I try not to fall into that pattern of thinking, because I can be wrong.
A lot of stories that The Drift publishes happen to be about young people in the world of art and culture. Sometimes the protagonists are writers, journalists, artists, or students. But there’s a certain approach to those worlds that can feel navel-gazey. So if I see that, I begin to think about whether the story will work or not.
If I see what appears to be high fantasy I’m going to be a little skeptical. The magazine has published stories that definitely weave in and out of other genres. I’m thinking of Vivian Hu’s “Arrangements,” for example. But if something feels like it’s coming from Middle Earth, I immediately start to wonder if it’s really for The Drift, and whether the person has read the magazine.
Wood: The Drift does delve into other genres — we’ve published stories like “Mormon Lake Hotshots” by Samuel Jensen, for example, which incorporates elements of speculative climate fiction. When it’s done really well, genre does have the ability to present a new narrative or come at a familiar world with a new angle, and we’re definitely not opposed to reading that.
One thing that is really special about The Drift is that basically all of the fiction we publish comes from the slush section. A lot of other literary magazines have slush submissions only nominally, and are really only publishing agented fiction or fiction from well-known authors. We have a commitment to publishing emerging writers and young voices, and I think that it’s exciting how equitable our submissions inbox is — everything gets read. I’m curious if there’s anything that you’ve read that we ended up publishing that you were particularly excited about?
Vaamonde: One that stands out to me is “The Third Room” by Julian Robles. That story appeared in the inbox and there was nothing eye-catching in the subject line or in the body of the email. Sometimes people will list their bio, and it’ll be like, oh, wow, look at all these amazing accolades, or look at the books this person has published, or I’ll even recognize their name. This email had none of that. It was just the attachment. I read it, and was blown away. It was shrouded in mystery; it felt like Julio Cortázar. I love how it plays with my expectations.
Ajayi: I love “Maud” by Noor Qasim, because when I read it was just like, what the hell is this? What is going on? At every moment, I was like, oh, this is so fun, and I don’t really know where I am, and that’s the opposite of how I usually read. I love the idea that a story can look like “Maud,” a very difficult form to realize — a dialogue/interview — and consistently hold your attention. A distinguishing feature between the stories that end up being successful, and the ones that don’t, is that it’s not enough for the story to have a compelling climax. Most of the portions of the story must be compelling on their own.
Vaamonde: I don’t think we’re looking for completely polished eggs. I admire it when a story grabs me, but it can have a shaky grip. And the stories that appear in the slush do not appear exactly the same way in the magazine. There’s a rigorous editing process. If I feel like a story is very strong in several categories, but there’s something missing, or I didn’t love the way it ended, or I found a couple of typos, but I’m compelled by the voice of the character, or I’m surprised by its form, I’ll push it along.
Wood: Every so often there’s a story that seems perfectly formed, but that’s almost never the case. Sometimes I’ll be in discussion with another editor about a story, and we’ll be thinking about whether we want to take it and someone will say, “I think if we went back to this author and asked them to rework it, there’s a deeper and more interesting story inside.” There’s a good deal of rigorous editing, and I think that’s a good thing, but there is also a good deal of trust and faith in the authors. It’s a very symbiotic editing experience.