"A Level Playing Field of Visual Art and Writing." A Chat With Aaron Lelito, Editor of Wild Roof Journal
Editor of visual-arts and nature-focused lit mag takes us behind the scenes
Another interview is in the books!
But, friends, before I tell you about it, I want to remind you that if you plan to participate in November’s discussion of Harvard Review for the Lit Mag Reading Club, be sure to order your copy of the latest issue asap! The journal may take a few weeks to arrive and you’ll want to be sure you have time to read it. You can find more information and the Harvard Review discount code for LMRC participants right here.
Now, onto the chat.
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Aaron Lelito, Founding Editor of Wild Roof Journal. This is “is an online art & literary publication that features work from a wide range of creative people—painters, drawers, photographers, digital artists, writers, poets, and anyone else who is passionate about the creative process and self-expression.”
While many magazines include art in their pages, it is less common for magazines to focus directly on the visual arts. Not so with Wild Roof. Aaron, who is both a poet and photographer, likes to arrange the issues in such a way that each one feels like a gallery, to create a “level playing field of visual art and writing.”
Aaron formed the magazine in 2019, just before you-know-what came along and changed all our lives forever. But the desire to grow the journal never abated. During the pandemic he, like so many of us, yearned to nurture an expansive creative community.
These days, he continues to nurture this community through the magazine as well as a podcast, writing workshops, social media engagement and his own creative work. His goals for the magazine are modest—“Nothing ever goes viral here.” But the connection among readers, contributors and editors remains vital.
In terms of what this magazine publishes, Aaron likes work that has a nature theme. But this is a “loose” theme, where nature need not be the central focus. A recent short story he accepted had nature themes and a strong sense of place, while also focusing more directly on family, history and memory.
For fiction, the word limit is under 3,000, give or take, with most accepted pieces generally landing at around 1,000 words.
Some of you might be working on pieces that combine visual art and text. So how should you submit? Aaron said not to stress too much about it. If you have it saved as a text file, submit it as a poem or story. If it’s a jpeg, submit it as an image. He welcomes such submissions.
Because Aaron is also an adjunct instructor with a lot to juggle—hence our quirkily specific interview time of 12:40!—I wanted to know how he handles it all and what keeps him excited about the magazine.
It was clear that Aaron genuinely loves this work. When you watch the video, you’ll see his eyes light up as he talks about arranging the issue’s contents. It is obvious he puts a tremendous amount of care and thought into how to collect and curate these works in a way to best present them all to us.
Another thing we discussed today, which I’d never actually considered before, is how some magazine issues can, at times, be an expression of an individual editor’s own private experience. Aaron got a wee bit personal in talking about how some of his own life struggles gave shape to the works that he then published in the magazine.
I don’t know. I find that interesting, just thinking about how some magazines may be more than collections of whatever’s good in the submissions queue, but a kind of personal expression from an individual editor. Perhaps you find this interesting too. Watch the video and tell me what you think!
Wild Roof Journal is open year-round. They publish online every other month.
Aaron is always on the lookout for help, such as people to volunteer as readers and social media mavens. If interested, email him directly at wildroofjournal@gmail.com.
To those who came out to join the conversation today, thank you for tuning in! You know I love your faces! So much! How much? My head is going to explode much!
And of course, thank you to Aaron, for taking the time to guide us through another lovely little magazine.
Happy viewing!
Check out more upcoming interviews and info sessions & register to attend right here!
In addition to publishing one of my poems, Aaron was quite helpful in my search for submissions, both published and declined, of work by the late Alex Leavens, who took his own life last year. I am co-editor of his collected poems, Horsethief Meadows, coming out with Finishing Line Press later this year or early 2023. He published a lot of Alex's work, and I think they had a good relationship. Thank you, Aaron.
One of my flash CNF pieces was published in Wild Roof earlier this year. Aaron was phenomenal to work with, genuine and caring. He’s been successful at expanding the journal in so many ways, including their first-ever zoom reading featuring past contributors. Well done!