PAYING/NO FEE Submission call and interview – The Chaotic Review
Trish Hopkinson
The Chaotic Review is a new online literary magazine seeking poems in any form, but they do particularly enjoy prose poems and published one of mine earlier this week, along with several others. I wondered how and why this new lit mag came to be, so I asked editor Justin Hilliard and he kindly replied. See my interview with Hilliard and submission guidelines below.
HOPKINSON: Tell me a little bit about The Chaotic Review.
HILLIARD: The Chaotic Review is a predominantly online literary journal, which works to publish poems that stab a mainer into the vein of truth, and let it flow in its pure state. That means I want poets who write the truth and loose every skeleton from the closet.
HOPKINSON: What gave you the idea to start an online lit mag?
HILLIARD: I grew up and matured as a writer alongside this guy, whose talent is criminally under appreciated. I'd often think about him, and ask myself would there ever be a journal who'd accept the likes of him. Kerouac come again, he could make Burroughs cringe. I wondered how many writers there were just like him, and I knew I would be the one to give their work a home. A few weeks after this revelation, The Chaotic Review released its first poem, which that guy wrote.
HOPKINSON: What type of work are you looking for?
HILLIARD: Poetry that doesn't have a home. That one experimental bit that you threw into your five-piece submission that was too obscene, or perhaps too offbeat for that specific journal. I want the outliers, but I also want everything else. Simple enough?
HOPKINSON: What are some of your favorite journals?
HILLIARD: I've always been a science fiction fan. I learned to write with science fiction and fantasy. I read magazines like the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Asimov's, for years. I have to give a nod to those guys for making me what I am today. Other than that, I really love the Nottingham Review, the Paris Review, Ploughshares, Verse-Virtual, and Whale Road Review.
HOPKINSON: Where can poets send submissions?
HILLIARD: Our e-mail for submissions is thechaoticreview@gmail.com, just send us what you got, preferably all in one attached document.
HOPKINSON: If someone has a question, how can they contact you?
HILLIARD: You can either send to our submission e-mail, or shoot me an e-mail directly at yourejustinhilliard@yahoo.com.
NOTES: “Generally, we like poems around 20-60 lines, but we'll go as low as you can, or as high. We like "free verse" poems created with your own form. Personally, I think prose poetry is amazing if you're good at writing it, so try us.”
