Pub Crawl: elimae

In 1996, elimae, which stands for "electronic literary magazine," was founded. Since then, what previously occupied the realm of science fiction has become much more the norm. It has always been true that very, very few independent literary journals—much less online ones—can claim to have been around nearly fifteen years. But elimae has done it, and continues to do it. Many thanks to editors Cooper Renner and Kim Chinquee for answering some questions for us.

RM: What book(s) are you reading right now. Thumbs up or down?

CR: "Gertrude" by Hermann Hesse; "Main Street" by Sinclair Lewis; "In a Glass Darkly" by J. Sheridan Le Fanu; "The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels" by Janet Soskice; and "Record Store Days" by Gary Calamar and Phil Gallo. The last two are nonfiction. They'll probably all get a thumbs (mostly) up. I'm pretty picky about what I dive into.

KC: Just started "Museum of the Weird" by Amelia Gray; Barbara Kingsolver’s "Animal," "Vegetable, Miracle" (appreciate the memoir/journalism mix); "Conjunctions:54 Shadow Selves" (triple thumbs up!).

RM: A lot of literary journals have a short life span, especially online ones.  Not yours—if I've done my homework correctly, elimae's been around since '96. What's your secret?

CR: Well, part of the secret is that I've only been editing at elimae since 2005. From '96 through the end of 2004, Deron Bauman, the founder, was the editor. And Kim signed on at the end of 2009, which really helped lessen the burden for me. I get tired, sure, and—to be honest—I can dread opening my email account, but I love the contact with writers. I'm not attached to a university or writing program, and without elimae, I'd be an awfully lonely writer.

KC: I’ve been editing elimae for almost a year, though I’ve been a part of it for quite a few. From what I sense (both as an editor and contributor) it’s about passion and consistency and commitment. As a contributor, I noticed that Cooper was always prompt in his replies, with a consistently positive attitude. Now, as an editor, I try to emulate that.

RM: elimae is connected with Ravenna Press, which is just over the mountains from us in Spokane, WA, right near my Grandma Charlotte. What is your relationship with Ravenna and the journals they support?

CR: I guess you'd say elimae, Ravenna and the magazines housed at Ravenna are a kind of network, brothers or sisters in the cause, or something like that. elimae isn't housed at Ravenna, so there's no 'official' link, but I work with Ravenna as an editor, so I suppose that means my 'sensibility'—whatever that is—works in both places. More broadly (and probably more accurately), elimae and the three magazines at Ravenna—The Anemone Sidecar, edited by Kathryn Rantala; Alba, edited by Harold Bowes; and Snow Monkey, edited by John Burgess—share a similar tilt and a sense of camaraderie, without sticking our fingers in each other's pies. We don't serve as editorial consultants or anything like that for the other magazines. Kathryn is editor-in-chief and publisher at Ravenna, and Harold and I work with her as the editorial board for Ravenna Press, but the magazines are all operated separately.

KC: My book "Oh Baby" was published with Ravenna Press in 2008. Though the press was a separate operation than Ravenna, Cooper did graciously edit my book, and my book included several pieces that had been published in elimae. In my opinion, the presses and elimae have a similar aesthetic and standard.

RM: Is there an aesthetic you go for at elimae?  Perhaps some guidelines or questions you ask of a piece before you're willing to publish it?

CR: Kim will have to answer for the fiction and creative nonfiction. And just trying to answer the question for poetry and reviews is difficult enough! One of the words I use over and again is 'oblique.' I tend not to respond favorably to direct statement—to "message"—in creative works. If a poem can be easily summarized, it's probably not for me. I mean this in terms of "serious" verse, by the way. elimae also publishes light verse, and that is an entirely different issue. Light verse needs to be sharp-witted and funny, not oblique in most cases, but not cliched or obvious either. In serious verse, I guess I want something of a sense of mystery, a sense that not everything is being told, a sense that there is work for me to do in the reading and, of course, a sense that the writer has mastered the medium. It would not be entirely true to say that content doesn't matter, but it is probably true that content matters secondarily—first, I need to be wowed by mastery of language. To put it another way, I sometimes publish poems (and used to publish stories, when I edited fiction as well) which I don't like in terms of content, but admire greatly in terms of formal skill. When content begins to matter for me, it is generally in the negative sense—that is, that the approach to subject matter, or the subject matter itself, is simply more 'brutal' (or sometimes more casually profane) than I want to read or be associated with, mastery or no. Call me old school, or old-fashioned, if you like. I don't believe there is no place for crudity and four-letter words, but I believe that both are overused in contemporary writing.

KC: As for fiction and nonfiction, I want something that pulls me in and keeps me. May start with a unique voice, an interesting use of language. Something with heart. Characters with compassion. I’m not sure if there’s any one thing in particular. Usually it’s all these things combined I fall in love with.

RM: Okay, I've got to include one campfire question. Feel free to pass on it. If you could tell any lie and have it be true, this instant, what would it be?

CR: Oh, man, what a question! Any lie? You mean I could say, "Isn't it grand that all the people of the world are so kindly and rational and generous?" and everyone would immediately become kindly and rational and generous? Or do you mean something shallow and self-serving like, "I'll be going to London next month for the launch party for my novel, 'A Death by the Sea'"? 

KC: Before I read Cooper’s answer, my first thought was, “My novel revision is done and it’s coming out tomorrow.” On a bigger scale, maybe that war is unheard of.

RM: Back to being serious. Do you have any advice for those of us seeking publication in elimae?  Any ways we can get connected to your online community?

CR: The only rational advice I can think of is: Read the magazine and get a feel for the kind of thing we do. If your writing seems to belong with us, then send us some.

KC: Yes, do read. Read all sorts of literary journals. Read lots of them and study.

"elimae" publishes jargon-free, non-academic reviews and literary essays; English-language reviews and translations of works from other languages; travel essays of literary quality; and poetry and fiction of the highest caliber. You can submit at elimae.com. 

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