Ask the Editor: The Editors of WTF PWM
[Roxane Gay / January 4th, 2010 / Interviews ]1. Editorial anonymity has been the source of recent discussion in various places. As the editor(s) of wtf pwm, are you choosing to be anonymous, and why?
Does the editorial staff really matter?
When WTF PWM was first conceived we asked ourselves this question. While this question can be argued either way, we, as editors, feel that it should not matter who edits a magazine. The magazine should be allowed to develop organically. While this will happen regardless of anonymity, we felt it would serve our journal better to prevent the interference of our public personalities.
That said, we have a publisher with a name. He initially corralled all of us together, conceived the magazine, and built our website. He is the voice of the magazine, in a way. Many people know his name. If you know where to look for it, it is available on our site. However, we have decided not to mention his name in this interview. There are people who have given us a hard time regarding our anonymity. We are sort of stubborn and want to play hard to get with these individuals. It amuses us that they are so angry about not knowing our names while at least one name is readily available to them.
2. WTF does WTF PWM mean? Why a new online magazine now?
There are indeed hundreds of online magazines. We know, we read them and have been published in them and enjoy most of them a great deal. Most of them are very well done. Some of them, unfortunately, are impossible to read or navigate. We wanted to create an online magazine that feels like a print magazine. As much as we love online literature–as I’m sure most of PANK’s readers and editors do–it does not in any way compare to print. WTF PWM is our attempt to reconcile these two worlds.
WTF is pretty clear. If not search for it on wikipedia or urbandictionary. PWM is a typo, made during the first design of our website. After reviewing and talking about the site, we decided to keep the typo and create our own word. You can find the meaning of PWN on urbandictionary or wikipedia. The fake word “pwn” is pronounced “pown” (that is, “own” with a “p” in front of it), therefore our fake word “pwm” is pronounced “powm,” or poem. It is a typo of a typo. It is a distortion of a distortion. We like it.
3. Is fill-in-the-blank poetry really that bad?
We think it is, unless someone can show us some fill-in-the-blank poetry that is stunning. Feel free to submit it.
4. You recently debuted your inaugural issue. I found the range of work interesting if not a bit difficult to see as a definitive example of your aesthetic. How did that issue come together? What are you looking for in submissions?
As we said, there are several of us. We all have different backgrounds and interests. We are not all writers. We read the submissions as they came in and published the pieces we found most enjoyable. We have no intention of developing a clear aesthetic. If WTF PWM ever becomes pigeon-holed into a certain type of fiction or poetry we might feel that we have failed ourselves and our readers.
We do not wish this to be difficult for anyone.
We are looking for anything that seems immediate and unique. We mostly like original and inventive pieces. One of us is particularly interested in impenetrable poems, one in stories that make us feel tremendously burdened with sadness, one is obsessed with celebrities (notice our first issue contained references to Hitchcock, Tom Petty, and Elton John), etc…, etc…
5. How did you settle on the design of WTF PWM? How would you characterize the relationship between the design of the site and the content?
Our intention was to create a website that doesn’t confuse a reader. Our only concern was that the website be easily navigable. We don’t have a great deal of graphics on our site. We’ve stuck to text and lines. The greatest print journals we’ve read seem to follow this principal. It is about literature, not about a flashy website.
6. Other than WTF, what is your favorite pop culture acronym?
GTFO. ROFLCOPTER.
7. Other than PANK, what are some of your favorite magazines?
Online: Drunken Boat. In print: Pear Noir!, Esopus.
8. The death of print, reading, literature, etc. are often lamented. Do you agree that there is a crisis in the world of words? If not, what gives you hope?
Though computers, the internet, the Kindle, etc., have all made literature more accessible, and made us adjust to reading from an electronic screen, none of the above have actually changed the emotional and intellectual experience of reading. Not many people sit down with a book (or e-book) to try to read it as quickly/efficiently as possible, or only sit down to read in order to play with a new techie toy–and those who do are not at it for long. The newest technologies in publication are exciting for all their possibilities, but they have done little to stem the flow of literature itself. We imagine few writers, having penned their masterpiece, throwing it away because they don’t want it read electronically. Seneca said something along the lines of “Life without literature is death.” The free flow of ideas, especially in literature, is a concept that has shaped our human experience, and we don’t see that coming to a halt anytime soon.
9. Have you been watching Jersey Shore? If no, why not?
No. It doesn’t seem that interesting.
It could possibly be everything that’s wrong with Society rolled up into a half-hour (hour?) (reality?) show.
One of us grew up in Jersey and spent his summers at the Jersey shore. He’s not sure what the fuss is about. He’s never watched the show but he’s sure it is a summation of a Belmar mayor’s complaints 2 or 3 years ago which received a lot of publicity. An article about the mayor’s “offensive” comments can be read here.
.
10. WTF PWM and PANK meet at a bar, have drinks, hit it off. Do they a. go to a sleazy motel and have a one night stand or b. make out in the bar but leave it at that or c. exchange phone numbers, start dating, and live happily ever after? Show your math.
If A^2 + B^2 = 15, and A * B = 5, what is A + B?
(A + B)^2 = 15 + 5 * 2
(A + B)^2 = 25
A + B = 5
That said, we’re not bar people.
11. You’re about to launch a Web Book series. There are people out there who are skeptical about the legitimacy of PDF Chapbooks and HTML Books and the like. What do you say to those people? What are some of the ways in which a website can showcase literature in the ways a physical book cannot?
We feel differently about our web-books than our journal. For our journal we will be presenting literature as literature without the fancy elements of a website. However, our web-books are meant to showcase the way in which the web can present literature in a new and hopefully exciting ways.
We know there are quite a few HTML Book publishers in existence at the moment. Some of them achieve their goals better than others. Our intention is to work intensely with writers and artists to create a collaborative website. We want to create something with is both visually and intellectually stimulating. The website will act as medium to convey the literature and art.
Our other goal in the series is not to produce as many books as possible. It is easy to sign up for a blogspot account and set up hundreds of HTML Chapbooks. You don’t even need to have any experience with web design for these sorts of books. Our books will be elevated. They are hand coded and programmed. Web design is a form of art, as you will see in our series.
Our first web-book, No Ceilings, was written by Jordan Castro. Our designer for this web-book worked closely with Jordan for several weeks, tweaking the design and the images. The final product, we feel, is something new to the world of HTML publishing.
12. What does the future hold for WTF PWM?
The future is uncertain. We are currently putting together our second issue. We have released our first web-book. We aspire to print publishing, but we have no real plans at this time.
13. What does it take to be a good editor?
Are we good editors? We don’t wish to make any self-assessment of our editing at this time.
Perhaps you can tell us more about good editing. (ed. We don’t have any answers either.)
14. What is the best gift you’re giving this holiday season?
Since we took so long with this interview the holiday season is over. However, we are still proud of our Christmas givings:
1) A baking stone.
2) A Barack Obama poster
3) A pink, silk kimono.
4) A Hunter-green iPod.
5) A Wii Hunting Rifle
15. What question did we forget to ask?
Who are your favorite writers, living or dead?
How do you take your coffee?
Beer or wine?
Interesting and entertaining interview as always! Though, I was a bit disappointed in the response to being anonymous. I felt their response offered no insight to the discussion. I still don’t comprehend not naming the editors. I’m not angry (like they suggest), but rather confused. Does the editorial staff matter? Yes. As a writer and someone who has helped edit journals, I think it’s vital to understanding a journal and their direction, or at least I think that until someone can give me a real reason to be anonymous and this interview didn’t do that.
My name is even required for this comment.
Interesting, never thought of it like that
Ah, I remember those comments! Pringle’s comments were blown way out of proportion.
Good interview, great magazine!
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Very Good article man Thank you