SUBMIT TO THE
MAY 1 - MAY 31
Whitney Collins
is the author of RICKY & OTHER LOVE STORIES, which was longlisted for The Story Prize, and BIG BAD, which won the Mary McCarthy Prize, a Gold Medal IPPY, and a Bronze Medal INDIES. She received a Best American Short Stories Distinguished Story, a Pushcart Prize, a Pushcart Special Mention, and the American Short(er) Fiction Prize. Her stories have appeared in American Short Fiction, AGNI, The Idaho Review, Gulf Coast, and swamp pink, among others.
What she wants to read:
“What excites me most about a longer length story is the opportunity for a more complicated character arc. Given the extended word count there’s a unique opportunity for complex backstory, for moral evolution or devolution (or both), as well as a deeper look at a character’s motivations and impulses. Will we get to see their darkest shadows? Their greatest potential? Outside of that, I love dry humor, juxtaposition, and just anything peculiar. The world may be at its weirdest right now, so I think it’s a great time for fiction writers to take risks and experiment!”
How does the guest editing slot work?
Pretty much the same as usual.
You will follow our normal submission guidelines, but please specify ‘guest editor submission’ in the subject line. (Ex: GUEST EDITOR SUBMISSION - [TITLE])
The regular editors will still read your submissions, too. the guest editor just gets final dibs on which story they’d like to edit and interview.
All stories not chosen by the guest editor will still be considered for regular publication.
What’s the timeline?
This specific submission window will run from May 1 to May 30.
Whitney will join our regular editorial board meeting to discuss submissions, then choose a story to edit/interview. Decisions will be announced in early June.
Editing and interviewing will take place in the month of June.
The selected story will be published on July 10; the accompanying author interview will be published on July 17.
What about fees and payments?
The regular rules apply! No fee to submit, and the selected author will receive a $20 honorarium upon publication.
The same is true of rights: we ask for First North American Serial. All other details can be found in our regular submission guidelines.
Why a guest editor?
Normally, Chatterbox! is a three-person team. So far, we dig it that way—but! As editors, it’s important that we take care to challenge our editorial scope. We don’t want to inadvertently leave good fiction behind due to tunnel Vision.
In that vein, we landed on the idea to pilot a guest editor model. The idea is to take the best part of a contest—offering a new, fresh editorial perspective—while axing the worst parts—the high submission fees.
A guest editor program allows us to expand our editorial vision without sacrificing our always-free-always-pays model.
Wait. Can I be a guest editor?
Maybe! We want to see how this first round goes first. If it goes well (fingers crossed) we plan to incorporate it into our annual schedule.
For the inaugural editor, we wanted to ask a previous contributor, since they have a good understanding of what we like to publish. In the future, though, we’d love to consider new faces who we haven’t seen before!