#SLFAQ Recap: IRxSL Collaborative Folio
Submissions are now open for the IRxSL Collaborative Folio! We are so excited to be partnering with Indiana Review on this venture, and we look forward to reading your work. Recently, we held a Twitter chat to address your burning collaboration questions. In case you missed it or in case you want a refresher before you send in your submission, here's a recap:
Hey SL + @IndianaReview editors—what do you look for in a submission?
Indiana Review: IR looks for work that takes risks—whether it’s with content or structure. Alongside that risk, we of course search for a read that we won’t forget. Resonant images, liberating voices, rhythms that we can’t help but to repeat over & over to each other.
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice (editor-in-chief, Split Lip): Voice, pacing, a specific POV that only the author(s) could have written. Humor or an experimental form we haven't seen before. Narrative confidence, meaning that the author has cared for their work and it shows.
Anna Vangala Jones (editorial assistant, Split Lip): I feel like editors often stress how important the writing is, and it is, but so is the story. We have to turn down some gorgeously written, haunting pieces where the characters are just too underdeveloped and their arc too unfinished/unresolved story-wise.
Are you favoring collaborations in your collaborative folio, or do you want individual pieces that deal with the theme of collaboration as well?
Indiana Review: We’ve been thinking. . . . IR would love to see prose pieces that toggle between multiple POVs or that use the collective first person! May not need another person to evoke collab if your work takes that route.
Maureen Langloss (flash fiction editor, Split Lip: We are NOT favoring collaborative works over pieces written by a single author. We recognize that not everyone works well in teams! It is OK if you want to go it alone.
Anna Vangala Jones: I’m actually very interested to see what the single submitter comes up with on the theme of collaboration, how they will interpret it in their individual work
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice: We want multi-author work or single-author work that deal w/collaboration! No preference for either! Collaboration is broad. Think: Stories about people working together, a greek chorus, maybe it's something meta like the play Our Town where characters break 4th wall
Can you give examples of some of your favorite collaborations and/or works with a collaborative theme?
Amy Rossi (managing editor, Split Lip): this might sound silly, but the Highwaymen! watching country music legends put their own spin on a song and come together and make something new always gets me thinking
Anna Vangala Jones: I’m a fan of the frequent collaboration between Beth Gilstrap & Jim Warner that you can find in Split Lip, Third Point Press, Gravel, & many other places
Indiana Review: IR actually has a couple of collab pieces that’ll be published in our Winter 2018 issue. Maureen Seaton and Denise Duhamel are long-time collaborators—their piece “Questionnaire” lists only their (humorous & empowering) answers to an interview.
We also have Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison’s “Post-Op Letters in the Field Between Us.” M— writes S— & S— writes M— brief, lyrical poems pondering time, dreams, place, etc.
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice: In high school I was in love w/the movie Magnolia, but especially w/the soundtrack, which is mostly written/composed by Aimee Mann. Paul Thomas Anderson says the movie was inspired by Mann's music. And the movie doesn't work w/out the music. It's the ultimate collab.
We're interested in the way art inspires other art. Here's PTA talking about Aimee Mann's music:
Indiana Review: IR also loves ekphrastic writing!
Maureen Langloss: Check out the amazing collaboration by Kim Magowan & Michelle Ross in our latest issue!
Indiana Review: #IRxSL isn’t accepting children’s lit but if you want to share collaborative themes with any kiddos in your life, Blocks is a great book.
How is this collaboration actually working? In terms of how you're working together?
Indiana Review: Everything selected for the Collaborative Voices folio will appear in both issues. With IR, the work gets a sleek, glossy section in the center of the print issue. With SL, the work gets a lovely online home as well.
We’ll decide on the cover art together as well—if you have artist friends who collaborate, spread the word.
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice: Everything about the issue will be a joint effort between IR and SL's editorial teams! We'll be having a video (yay technology) conference at the end of the sub period to discuss our favorites and decide on final selections
Do translations count as a collaboration?
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice: Yes!! (Oui!!)
Maureen Langloss: Yes please!! Translation = an incredible way to collaborate. One of the most striking collaborations I’ve seen recently: the work of playwright Andrea Thome at NY Public Theater. She interviewed undocumented workers in Spanish & turned it into an amazing play in English.
Will contributors to the collaborative folio be paid?
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice: HECK YES! From the SL side: $50 per piece.
Indiana Review: Yes! IR’s end: $25 base + $5/page. Our new honorarium begins with this special issue!
What types of submissions would you like to see more of for the collaborative folio?
Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice: Fiction/flash! Would be especially interested to see memoir/CNF written by multiple authors. Or memoir/CNF about people collaborating, whatever that means to you!
Maureen Langloss: FLASH!!! Please, please, please more MORE more FLASH flash FlAsH.
Indiana Review: Definitely more essays. There are countless real-life stories out there about community, rebuilding, etc. that only need a writer to put it on paper.
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Submissions close on 10/31, so get your collaborative pieces in! And if you need some inspiration, we have a whole host of prompts for you!