Interview with
Jackie Corley
Interview by
Tina Crandell
Jackie
Corley is the publisher of Word Riot, an online literary magazine that receives
hits from every "continent except Antarctica." She has a short story collection,
The Suburban Swindle, due out later this year (So New Media). Or you can
find her now at
www.wordriot.org. The almost 26-year-old discusses experimental writing,
what it takes to be a good writer, and how to start your own independent
publishing press.
Word Riot
advertises: "good writing. no remorse." What is good writing?
To me, good writing takes a risk. It should make you uncomfortable, forced to
confront and question the world around you. I think, with enough practice,
anybody can turn themselves into a solid wordsmith-- somebody who can write that
immaculate sentence. But it takes something more to be a writer. It takes
cajones.
How would you
categorize the reader-base?
Our
readers are office slaves and blue collar stiffs with a love of good writing,
soccer moms and college kids who have an open mind and like to be intellectually
challenged. Hipsters, punk rockers, grandpas, lawyers, accountants-- they're all
represented in our readership. What our readers have in common is a passion for
good writing and a fierce curiosity about the world around them.
It seems your readers are
your writers and your writers are your readers. In other words, there is a
certain sense of camaraderie when you visit the site-- like you are a part of
something. Describe that something.
I don't see the need for a sort of hierarchy in art like "The Lord came down and
said, 'You in this clan are the writers and you in this clan are the readers.'"
Any good writer needs to be a good reader. They need to appreciate what makes
something good fiction. I don't trust writers who don't read (and there are more
out there than you would think).
There's this tendency to put high-profile writers on a pedestal. I just don't
see the point in it. It creates this unnecessary divide between reader and
writer. Online and small press writing has created this community that really
blurs those lines. And this online interaction has transferred into the real
world. I love going to a reading event and grabbing drinks with writers whose
work I enjoy.
Word Riot is host to experimental forms such as "Flash
Fiction" and "Novular." But tell us more about "Stretching Forms." This is a
genre that even Wikipedia has yet to define.
Word Riot's first fiction editor, Jordan Rosenfeld, mentioned that we were
receiving a significant number of experimental submissions that didn't quite fit
neatly into a short story category. Some of these works employ stream of
consciousness. Some take advantage of the seemingly limitless structural
formatting the digital screen provides (as opposed to the very concrete
boundaries of a sheet of loose-leaf). Just throwing these stories under an
"Experimental" category didn't seem to do them justice. She suggested putting
these works into a category she termed "Stretching Forms." It's stuck ever
since.
You were born in 1982. This makes you 26, which is
impressive enough but Word Riot was created 5 years ago in 2002, when you were
just 21 years old. Did I do my math right?
Yes, I'll be 26 in a few months and I started Word Riot when I was quite a young
'un. I've always had a strong interest in fiction, in the power of the written
word. I was the kid who would sit in the hammock at a family party and just
devour novels. I'd always been too intimidated to try to write my own fiction,
but by high school I realized writing was something I could do and I finally
just went at it. I think the fact that I consider myself a reader before a
writer has something to do with why I decided to start Word Riot. I like being a
part of bringing good writing into the world; whether it's mine or somebody
else's doesn't really matter to me.
Less than a year after
the launch of the website, the independent publishing press, Word Riot Press,
was born. Will you elaborate on the conception?
When I started working on the online magazine, I'd look at the small press
publishers like Akashic and Soft Skull with great admiration. And then I saw
what this micro press, So New Media (http://sonewpublishing.com/)
was doing -- putting out chapbooks, using various websites to promote their
authors, etc. I realized that was something I could do, that it was within my
reach to put together an actual plan to produce books. I started researching
paper, hardcore desk printers, saddle staplers -- everything about desktop
publishing. I found a paperback printer that could handle short production runs
at a price I could handle and with the quality I wanted. We've been putting out
paperbacks ever since.
Any advice for our readers who would like to earn a
by-line from Word Riot?
Read the magazine. Get familiar with the kind of work we publish. That's pretty
true for every magazine, I guess. Don't play the whole spray-and-pray game (when
you send submissions everywhere and hope somebody decides to publish your work).
Editors hate that. At Word Riot, we like gritty subject matter, bizarre humor,
and anything with an edge.
As a writer, what impresses you about
editors/publishers?
I like editors and publishers who aren't thrown off by difficult subject matter.
I respect editors who take a chance on pieces that have a certain emotional
vulnerability to them.
As an editor/publisher what impresses you about
writers?
I'm impressed by writers who aren't afraid to really expose their pathos on the
page, to really dive into what makes them and the rest of us humans tick. I like
writers whose work can speak to us in a quiet, naked moment.
