Our team introductions continue this week with a series of Q&As from Weird Lit Mag Senior Editor Dina, touching on jazz, what kind of unconventional writing she's looking for from our contributors, and advice for getting beyond the shit sandwich that can be a first draft.
What inspired you to become part of a literary journal?
I want to promote good writers who aren’t afraid to embrace the strange parts of their minds. Those who whip out their flashlights and magnifying glasses and investigate the rooms inside their subconscious mansions. I want to find solid storytellers who, when presented with life’s horrors, don their labcoats, pick up their scalpels and bonesaws and say, well, let’s get to it. By publishing these interpretations of our bizarre, horrific, baffling, heartbreaking, and wonderful world (internal and external), readers can feel a kind of solidarity with the universe. I think everyone could benefit from a little more of that.
What is your writing theme song?
The Portland jazz radio station, KMHD. We stream it via an old phone plugged into our receiver, and it’s on in the house 24/7. We turn it down at night and back up in the morning. I never understood jazz until I started writing seriously.
What kinds of things are you excited to read in a Weird Lit Mag submission?
Something new for chrissake. Surprise me. Points for humor, though (because) it's difficult. I love complicated puzzles told elegantly. Experimental forms. Clean, clear prose where I'm not wandering around the first page wondering where I am or what's going on. Stories with heart, even the really dark ones, with some kind of soul visible. I want to see the story you 100% believe in but either has been turned away by other magazines or you've convinced yourself it’s too oddball, experimental, crazy, and/or unconventional. It needs to be something you've polished to a shiny luster, sharpened to a razor's edge, and then thrust in front of the mirror where you can look at yourself holding it and say, "Jeeze you're a weirdo, but people need to see you." That one. Your weird little baby. Lemme see that weird little baby.
What kinds of things are you not excited to encounter in a Weird Lit Mag submission?
Writers writing about writers writing. Second-person narration. Single scenes that go nowhere. But trauma narratives are the absolute worst, because a reader is not a therapist. Sometimes I read something and it feels like the writer took a big dump between two pieces of bread and called it a sandwich. It may be cathartic, and that's nice for the writer; I'm happy they're getting it out. But it's still shit. Nobody wants to eat that. It's a necessary first step and now that the author has gained some clarity and perspective, it's time to get to really writing. When I was a teacher, I used to tell my students that your pain can drive a creative work, but the end result must be more. It must be transformative.
How do you think writers can improve their writing?
You can't write if you don't read. Simple as. Read constantly. Read actively. Take notes on what you like and how it works. Don't be afraid to experiment. No one has to know. I won't tell. Write it on paper and eat it later if you're worried about the government. Or whoever.
What’s your favorite cryptid?
The Insulindian Phasmid. The arthropods are rooting for you. I am too.
Dina Dwyer is a writer, editor, and visual media artist living in Seattle. Her fiction and photography has appeared or is forthcoming in Tupelo Quarterly, The Ocean State Review, Deviance Magazine, and elsewhere. She loves playful language, fanciful themes with believable characters, the kinds of stories that make you feel less alone, and anything to do with birds.
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