Jessica Fischoff is the Editor of [PANK] and author of the upcoming little book of poems, The Desperate Measure of Undoing (Across the Margin, 2019). She has a degree in English and Journalism from University of Iowa, where she studied the lyric essay under the mentorship of John D’Agata. While pursuing an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The University of Pittsburgh, she served as an Editorial Assistant at Creative Nonfiction and began to write poetry under Dawn Lundy Martin, and Ben Lerner. Her writing appears in Diode Poetry Journal, Fjords Review and The Southampton Review.
Kristina Marie Darling: How did you come to editing as a career path?
Jessica Fischoff: As a creative nonfiction MFA student at The University of Pittsburgh, I worked as an Editorial Assistant for Creative Nonfiction. I loved being behind the scenes of a literary publication. In workshops, I found myself spending more time on my responses to my classmate’s pieces than on my own work. I enrolled in an editing class with Joel Lovell, and after a long discussion about the post-MFA opportunities, I knew I wanted to continue on with the creative processes of editing.
After graduate school, I applied myself to other fields. I managed a very popular, hectic, Italian restaurant. I played the cello in a number of touring bands. I owned a small 3-D design company where I was the head of promotion and marketing.
KMD: What does literary citizenship mean to you and how does it shape your editorial decisions, approach to book publicity, and engagement with the larger community?
JF: For me, Literary Citizenship is being an active member of the literary community. Not just writing and submitting your own pieces for publication, but more importantly, read what others are producing. Are you attending live readings? Are you participating in conferences and workshops? Do you subscribe to literary journals? Even if you aren’t purchasing books, are you requesting books from your libraries? We can’t have publications or an strong evolving community without readers.
I think a writer’s community engagement always helps elevate the chances of their piece to land on paper, if only because they’ve continually put themselves out there, which means there is a better chance for editors to see their work, and have more opportunities to seek out their work or to even solicit them personally.
Social media isn’t the end all be all of a writer’s career, but active social media participants, who are constantly supporting other writers by reposting their work and events, also go noticed. We’ve published authors from a large range of ideas and voices. We’ published authors who have a number of books under their belt and those without a publication record. We don’t base our publications off of a writer’s social media following or previous list of publications, but it is very refreshing to know that a writer is actively working their own career. That they want to utilize their resources to promote their own work.
KMD: Please share one story about your press, your authors, or the books you’ve published that demonstrates this.
JF: I’m going to flip the question! We just published Nor Do These by Max Brett. It is his first (and only) work of literature. He’s never published a creative piece appear in any publication, but when his book of raw, humorous poetry found its way in our slush pile, we knew we couldn’t resist. I’ve watched Max bloom as an author in his work, and in his community immersion. He entered the reading circuit, not simply as a performer, but as an audience member. He started a social media account to feature his book and writing. He jumped head first into AWP. He wanted to work it. So many authors leave everything up to their presses, which I understand, but there is a real grass roots ground swell activation when an author pushes their work. As writers, we want more than just the tangible publication from our presses. If we didn’t want it, we might as well self-publish. But I also know that to be successful, the writer has to take responsibility for their own citizenship. They have to put themselves out there. We should all be constantly working to promote the things that we are doing if we want to actively share them with the world.
KMD: In what ways has your definition of and commitment to literary citizenship changed in the past few years? What sparked these changes?
JF: I come at this very holistically. I took a long break after graduate school. I managed a very busy, intense Italian restaurant. I owned a small 3-D design company and was the head of promotion and marketing. My heart, however, was always in literature, and to be able to be an active and contributing part of the community is a dream.
I don’t know if my definition of literary citizenship has changed, but I can tell you that I’m coming at this in full force. We’ve done a number of things at [PANK] that I think really build us as our own kind of family within the greater community. We’ve made our book authors the judges for our book contests, and the winners of our contests will judge the future contests, which makes our contest winners part our ever-growing family by direct curatorial choice. For every signature added to our newsletter sign-up sheet at our AWP 2019 table, we donated a dollar to LAMBDA, as a way to give back to the organizations that help the literary world remain open, supportive, and inclusive.
KMD: Tell us about one forthcoming title from your press that you think will change the world for the better.
JF: Every title and every poem we’ve published has changed things for better. I personally fond of our Monica Prince title How to Exterminate, which is a choreopoem focuses on the fictitious character of Angela, a black woman, she focuses on six selves that attempt to bring her back to life. The work itself is interdisciplinary and inclusive and I don’t know how it couldn’t change everyone who reads it for the better.