Editor of Fropnd orna f the Hiku Soiey o mrica
Being an Editor for Literary Works by George Swede, Toronto, Canada go : Ju l o
a Editor, Which Kind Art Thou?
We are all editors. We labor over the right words we utter or write to others. We edit the photos taken on a trip, an office party, wedding or in the bedroom. We revise our appearance: the clothes we wear, our hair, the whiteness of our teeth. We redo the larger context in which we function, that is, the car we drive, the place in which we live, even the dog or cat we select as a pet. The only difference between everyone as editor and the editor of a journal or an anthology is that the latter selects and perhaps revises whata
nohrhas done. te
But this oversimplifies for there are editors-in-training, junior editors, copy editors, assistant editors, associate editors and editors-in-chief, and all have different roles in the judgment process.
Motivations For Becoming A Literary Editor
Why does a person decide to become an editor of someone else‘s work? The most common motive is a love of writing dovetailing with the need for a job—the Honors English grad is lucky enough to get hired by a publisher of books, journals or popular magazines. Then he or she starts at the bottom as a junior editor and slowly works up to a higher rung. However, most individuals who end up as editors are unpaid. They make their incomes outside the publishing industry and become editors for a variety of other reasons.
A noble intent for becoming an editor is to gather and publish neglected or ignored writing into a book, journal or blog—to be a crusader or champion of the writing of others. A more common impetus is to launch what you think is a unique idea for a book or journal or blog, such as soliciting poems about rugby or fishing. Many editors take such a route to publish their own work. A closely allied aim is the promotion of a new literary sub-genre. You started writing sci-fi ghazals and now want to be seen as the founder of this spin-off. For many, there can be also be a need for personal glory.
As A Crusader My first stint as an editor was for theC
c t f A e
a d n Hiku Ato g na ia a
nhloy(Toronto: Three Trees Press, 1979).
It was a huge job for a beginner—selecting 20 haiku by each of 20 prominent Canadian haiku poets. The anthology was a phenomenal success, especially for a novice compiler. I was interviewed on national CBC radio as well as on local Toronto stations. A sold-out launch was held at the Harbourfront Centre, the premiere literary venue in Canada. At last, the haiku was on its way to poetic respectability and finally the reading public would recognize that, in English, the haiku did not have to follow a 5-7-5 format and that the best poems had fewer than 17 syllables. Was I wrong!
The 600 copies of the anthology sold out in less than six weeks. A thousand more buyers were ready, but the publisher could not reprint because the plates had been lost (or so the story goes) and so was the opportunity to reach out to more people. Nevertheless, I‘m not sure that an extra thousand copies would have made much difference. Today, the 5-7-5 idea of haiku is as strongly entrenched among educators and the media as it ever was.
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