{"id":428,"date":"2021-08-01T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/?p=428"},"modified":"2024-02-20T21:26:28","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T21:26:28","slug":"interview-with-poetry-editor-lynne-sargent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/interview-with-poetry-editor-lynne-sargent\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Poetry Editor, Lynne Sargent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s been a super-busy July, but we found time to have a brief interview with our Poetry Editor, Lynne Sargent. Here’s what we talked about.

1. What was the last book you read for fun?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently  finished The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde and I am now onto The  Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North. I’m on Goodreads, so you can  always find what I’m reading there!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. What got you into science fiction\/Speculative Fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have loved  speculative fiction for as long as I can remember. I started reading  the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in grade 2. My mom always read me the  uncensored fairy tales and myths and Arthuriana even as a child though,  so there really isn’t a time I can remember where I wasn’t an sff fan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. What kinds of poetry in terms of form or content are you hoping to see Utopia publish more of?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I  love novelty, so anything that’s an usual form or structure is great.  We get a lot of free form poetry and that’s great too, but if its a new  concept or genre-mashing or anything like that it will definitely stand  out more to me. I really do love things that break genre boundaries and  that imagine utopic and science fiction in broad ways (but that are  still clearly utopic and science fiction).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. How do you determine if a piece of writing is \u2018good\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, I like to look for intentionality. Is it clear that the author is trying to do something<\/em>,  that they have vision? Second, I want there to be some kind of clear  arc or satisfactory movement in a piece, Third, I’m looking for  language, enjambment, all that technical stuff. And then finally it’s:  does this piece have a spark, that something that I could never ever  describe to you, that know-it-when-you-see-it magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. What are the most rewarding and challenging parts about being a poetry editor?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The  most rewarding part is publishing new writers and finding new voices!  The worst part is having to reject poetry I absolutely adore and want to  show to the world but it just doesn’t fit our theme\/mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. What’s the most important thing you’ve learned while working at Utopia Science Fiction?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utopia  is my first editorial endeavor so I’ve really enjoyed getting to flex  my muscles at crafting multiple works to a theme, essentially  cultivating a curatorial skill. It’s very different from just line  editing or making suggestions on an individual piece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. What story or poem that you’ve read (any story\/poem) has had the largest impact on you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This  is a tough one, and I’m sure my answer will change if you ask me on a  different day\/time. Right now I’m going to go with a childhood\/  favourite (because the most formative works I think are the ones that  come to us when we are young and our personalities are still squishy)  and that would be Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shallot”. It was the first  work that made me really like poetry by itself and not just as a part of  a larger work, and that showed me how individual poems can still really  excel at storytelling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a super-busy July, but we found time to have a brief interview with our Poetry Editor, Lynne Sargent. Here’s what we talked about.1. What was the last book you read for fun? I recently  finished The Jewel and her Lapidary by Fran Wilde and I am now onto The  Pursuit of William Abbey by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","ph_site_tiers_settings":[[]],"_ph_post_tiers":["prod_PauACsijbyVHUH","prod_Pau92U3RPjNgeu","prod_Pau8adHdjphPGS","prod_Pau7SM2pr6doK7","prod_Pau484GX1SAETo"],"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/on.patronhunt.com\/utopiasciencefiction\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}