"We Publish Work That Has a Certain Spiritual Resonance." A Chat with Barbara Lock, Managing Editor of Variant Lit

Q & A with editor of online lit mag takes us behind the scenes

Friends, another editor interview is in the books!

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Barbara Lock, Managing Editor of Variant Lit. This magazine “is a small, nonprofit press and magazine committed to publishing diverse voices at all stages of their careers.”

The journal publishes fiction, nonfiction and poetry four times per year, entirely online. Their response time for submissions is a remarkable two - five weeks, occasionally longer if they’re giving a particular work extra attention.

These editors also work with writers to revise pieces. Barbara said that about sixty - eighty percent of accepted work goes through at least one round of revisions with Variant Lit Editors.

So then, what makes a story likely to get accepted here? Barbara described a certain spiritual essence she is looking for in each work. I found this remark fascinating, as it’s not something often discussed among literary editors. Naturally, I asked her to elaborate. Did she mean religious? Explicitly spiritual? Or something more ineffable? And if it’s the latter, how does she know when she’s found it?

For writers who are looking to submit to this magazine, how can they analyze their own work to determine whether it has that spiritual component? Or, as Barbara put it, “an extra level of meaning,” something that “shimmers.”

Barbara, who is also a practicing physician and who teaches creative writing, shared a wonderful exercise for writers looking to deepen their work and bring it to that extra level. This involves looking at the objects in a piece, trying to identify patterns, and drawing out metaphors that may have been unintentional but which can be made more explicit through revision.

She also advised writers who are looking for ways to strengthen their work to avoid passivity in their characters—sitting, thinking, drinking—and to avoid over-use of exposition. Putting one’s work aside for a spell and then returning to it later to find where the action begins can also be a great strategy.

What else can writers do to try to land work in this magazine? What kind of writing does Barabara want to see more of? What do they tend to see a lot of in submissions? And what exactly makes this magazine different from the thousands on the scene today?

For all this and much more, you’ll have to watch the video!

To everyone who came out today, thanks for tuning in! Your faces are my springtime flowers!

And, of course, thank you to Barbara for taking the time to take us inside another lovely little magazine.

Happy viewing!

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