"The Goal is to Keep Working." A Chat with Michael Ray, Editor of Zoetrope
Lit Mag Reading Club Q & A
Good day! I come with news of another editor interview, freshly in the books.
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Michael Ray, Editor of Zoetrope. This interview surprised me in a number of ways, the biggest way being that the journal is more open to publishing work from “the slush pile” than I’d realized. But more on that in a bit.
Founded by Francis Ford Coppola in 1997, Zoetrope: All-Story is a quarterly print magazine of short fiction, one-act plays, and essays on film. Among the most celebrated literary periodicals in the world, it has won every major story award, including four National Magazine Awards for Fiction, along with a number of design commendations. The magazine’s contributors comprise the most promising and significant writers of our era: Mary Gaitskill, Colum McCann, Rachel Cusk, Jim Shepard, Elena Ferrante, Daniel Alarcón, Karen Russell, Yiyun Li, Jonathan Lethem, Wes Anderson, Elizabeth McCracken, David Mamet, Ha Jin, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Pedro Almodóvar, Ethan Coen, Yoko Ogawa, Charles D’Ambrosio, Neil Jordan, Haruki Murakami, and many more.
In today’s conversation we covered a lot of ground, more ground than is typically covered in these sorts of discussions. I mean, it’s only natural. How often do we encounter lit mags founded by one of the most significant filmmakers of all time?
The timing for this interview could not have been better, as Coppola’s latest film just released last week. Michael told us about the long process of developing this project and Coppola’s experiences workshopping the script. I relished these behind-the-scenes glimpses, as we so often forget that even luminaries have to struggle, toil, and, yes, workshop their material until they get it right.
Coppola founded the magazine as a kind of research and development project, originally seeking stories that could be seeds for movie projects. Over time the magazine has evolved into its own kind of movie project, with different featured guest designers (who are themselves often film directors) for each issue. The communication between image and text throughout each issue is striking, with the parts adding up to much larger cinematic wholes.
For our May Reading Club we read the summer 2023 issue. The work is varied and in our discussion of the issue we each had different reactions to the magazine’s design, which at turns surprised, confounded and overall delighted us.
Across the board, we all loved a story called “The Trouble with Soviet Film” by Evgeniya Dame.
I was stunned to learn that this work had not been solicited by the editors. Because of the prestige of the journal and the high profile of the contributors, I’d assumed that everything here is solicited. But I was wrong!
Open reading periods are not regular the way they are with many other journals. To see when they are accepting submissions, best bet would be to check the site once in a while.
However, all work that is entered into the annual contest is considered for publication in the magazine. Also, the top ten works chosen are sent to literary agencies. Michael cited several well-known writers who all got their start with a short story in Zoetrope.
For sure, this is not an easy market to break into. Michael said they get about 2,500 submissions per year, and what they select from that pool is small. Nonetheless, it’s not off-limits entirely.
They do also put out calls for volunteer readers from time to time. If this interests you, contact them directly.
What, then, are these editors looking for in a short story? What makes a story perfect for Zoetrope? What qualities in writing do these editors want to see more of? And how much hands-on editorial work can be expected if a writer’s story is accepted for publication?
All that and so much more in today’s video.
This one is for members of the Lit Mag Reading Club only. Anyone can join the Club any time by becoming a paying subscriber to Lit Mag News.
To everyone who tuned in today, thank you! Your faces are the happy jangle of the ice cream truck on my hot neighborhood corner!
And, of course, thank you to Michael for taking the time (and then some!) to take us behind the scenes of this exquisite little magazine.
Happy viewing!