"Open to Reading Things That are a Little Different." A Chat with Amy Barnes, Editor of Gone Lawn

co-Editor of online mag takes us behind the scenes

Another editor interview is in the books!

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Amy Barnes, Co-Editor of Gone Lawn. This magazine seeks “sincere, imaginative, unusual and/or innovative works that charm and displace us, that baffle the fence-setters of our rolling, verdant isles and nab all of their dreary tools.”

In today’s conversation we talked about what makes Gone Lawn unique. In describing the magazine, Amy used words like “quirky,” “surreal,” and “esoteric.” They publish new takes on fairytales, as well as folklore, “odd animals,” magic, speculative fiction, sci-fi, “hard topics softened by surreality,” as well as more conventional stories that they simply love. Genres accepted include prose poetry, short fiction, novel excerpts and original artwork.

Gone Lawn is an online-only journal. It appears every two months, according to the cycles of the moon. (A recent issue coincided with the beaver moon. Current submissions align with the wolf moon. You can learn more about moon cycles here!) The magazine was founded in 2010 and is currently edited by Amy and Owen Wyke.

As the journal’s only staff members, Amy and Owen read every submission that comes in. They also submit selections from work published in the magazine to anthologies such as the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions and Best Microfictions.

Amy encourages writers who have been rejected by Gone Lawn to continue submitting. She herself received multiple rejections before eventually having a piece accepted here. She then went on to fill a staff opening that led to her role as editor. She also welcomes work by writers at all stages, and noted that past work has appeared by teenagers, brand new writers, writers without MFA’s and without college degrees.

In addition to editing Gone Lawn, Amy works as a reader or editor at a variety of other journals including CRAFT, Fractured Lit, RUBY, Narratively and The MacGuffin. Her commitment to lit mags is part of her own personal DIY MFA, and she encourages others who want to improve their craft or learn more about lit mag submissions to read for journals.

In an interesting sidenote, Amy revealed that she is also a speed reader and has a photographic memory. As a somewhat slow reader myself, I was eager to learn the secrets of speed reading. She shared some quite interesting factoids about her reading process today.

In addition, Amy discussed common reasons for rejection from Gone Lawn, the magazine’s policy of not sending rejection letters on holidays, what she would personally like to see more of in submissions, and she told us what keeps her in this work and why she is so deeply committed to finding great writing and new writers.

For all that and much more, my friends, you will have to watch the video!

Gone Lawn is open for submissions on a rolling basis, though they do occasionally cap submissions if they need to catch up on reading. Response time is under six months.

To all who came out to join the discussion today, thank you for tuning in! Your faces are the bright moon in my dark and starry sky.

And, of course, thank you to Amy for taking the time to tell us all about another lovely little magazine.

Happy viewing!

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