[00:00:01.220] – Rachel Thompson
Hi, luminous writers, and welcome back to Lit Mag Love. Today I’m sharing a conversation with Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos, founder and editor of Raw Lit mag, an online literary magazine that publishes curated issues across prose, poetry, artwork, and hybrid work, and then produces each issue as a PDF. If you’ve been trying to understand fit, quote unquote, around the word fit and you keep getting stuck on the question, is my work raw enough, bold enough, edgy enough? This conversation will give you a much more useful lens to apply to your work when you want to submit it to Raw Lit. Delphine talks about what Raw Lit is actually drawn to: emotionally honest work that creates a real pull without relying on shock or unprocessed anger. And we also talk about the practical side of submissions: reading the guidelines, formatting, word count. And the tiny details that quietly shape an editor’s experience of your work before they even get to the first line. This episode is full of really concrete suggestions for how to redraft your work to make it easier for editors to say yes. So let’s get into it. I want to welcome you to this conversation about Raw Lit mag, Delphine.

[00:01:20.150]
Thank you so much for being here.

[00:01:22.000] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Thank you for having me.

[00:01:23.440]
So Raw Lit mag, you’re online, you have a beautiful PDF that you create for each issue. They’re issue-based in that you curate lineups for each issue as well too, sometimes around a theme perhaps.

[00:01:38.650]
The theme actually is optional. We like to give a prompt in case people need inspiration, but it really is optional. If it matches it, it’s fine. If it doesn’t, it’s fine too.

[00:01:51.130] – Rachel Thompson
Oh, that’s good to know. And you’re accepting prose, fiction, nonfiction, including CNF, poetry, artwork, and hybrids, including comics.

[00:02:00.860] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yes.

[00:02:01.330] – Rachel Thompson
As well, which is great to see.

[00:02:03.090] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Would love some more of those, please.

[00:02:05.980] – Rachel Thompson
You heard it here. Would love some more. And the idea is, I love this word raw because I think that’s sort of a mission statement too, where it’s, you’re open to any genre or style as long as it’s emotional and raw as well.

[00:02:20.310] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yes, it is.

[00:02:21.770] – Rachel Thompson
And then also, and we’ll talk more about how submissions work because that’s one of the focuses of our conversation, but I like that you have these sort of 2-week periods twice a year. January 1st and June 1st is when you open, so you’ve just recently closed for the second 2 weeks, or until you hit your cap. I’ll ask you more about that when we talk a little bit about submissions too.

[00:02:42.560] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yeah, the system might change because we received a lot of submissions. We are thinking of opening only for one week for prose and poetry as of January, because we accepted over 100 submissions in each category, and it’s a lot if we want to keep answering within 2 weeks. We’re not robots, so we’re gonna have to make it a bit shorter. Yes.

[00:03:08.760] – Rachel Thompson
Yeah, so like a lot of lit mags, you’re getting a high number of submissions now, like it’s just been going up. So for People who are new to Raw Lit, I just wondered if— you mentioned comics already a little bit in terms of genre, but what kind of work that you receive makes you sit up in your chair or, you know, gives you that editor’s gleam in your eye that you’re excited about reading?

[00:03:34.310] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
I think if you can make us cry, that’s it. The stories that really stay with us are the ones that have this really strong emotional pull. And if you make one of the team cry, good chances are you will be published. I think some people confuse what we’re looking for because we ask for raw. It doesn’t mean that we’re looking for stories that are shocking or angry. We’re looking for healing. We’re looking for stories that show another side of hurt that we might not understand to help us understand it better. It’s about empathy. It’s about making the reader see someone else’s story and understand it and feel it. I love that.

[00:04:15.240] – Rachel Thompson
I feel like you encapsulated what I love about literature in your response there too. So I guess after reading an issue of Raw Lit, I was gonna ask you what you’re hoping the reader would feel, and is it that healing or that understanding or empathy, or is there something else to add to that?

[00:04:33.960] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
I think we live in a society that has forgotten that everybody actually matters. We are in, in a very narcissistic society right now, and this work is important because it reminds us that every person we meet out there is going through something, and we forget about it. We are getting very self-centered. I think social media is not helping with that, but it’s a lot of me, me, me, and we are not always as kind as we should be, because we forget that everybody is going through something. We’re not the only ones. We’re not the center of all that matters. Everybody has a story to tell. So if the magazine can show that, then we’ve done something right. And the art is also very important here for me in it. The art is a way of linking each story on the PDF especially. So that each issue actually tells a story of its own.

[00:05:31.040] – Rachel Thompson
When a piece you receive is strong but maybe not right for Raw Lit, what is the mismatch usually about?

[00:05:38.180] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
It’s a lack of emotional pull. It can be overwritten. The prose is incredibly pretty, but it’s so pretty that you lose the story in it. The writing might be too telling, it’s not showing, so again, it creates a distance. Because you need to show the feelings, not just tell them. The reader might not be anchored in the world. We need some sensory details to make us feel the world the main character is. Sometimes the form doesn’t work, or it could be a point of view issue that the story is there and it’s valid, but it might not be told in the right point of view. Maybe it’s someone else’s story. Maybe it’s one of the other characters who should be telling it. But mostly for us, we are Raw Lit, so we want to feel. We want to be moved when we read a story. We receive a lot that are not good fits because the theme is good, the theme is really raw, but the writing doesn’t bring it out. If we read something about a very touching theme and we are left cold, then it’s not a good fit for us.

[00:06:50.630] – Rachel Thompson
I was reading that you returned to writing after a 17-year hiatus. So I would just love to know, just for yourself as a writer, what helped you come back and what changed maybe in that time in your relationship to the work too?

[00:07:05.350] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
I’ve always loved writing and life made me stop because I went through something traumatic. In 2022, I had a really horrible, horrible year. I had such a buildup of anger that I needed to let it out. So I started writing again, and I am so happy for all that happened. I’m thankful for it because I had really missed it. It was also my age because I was 49 and I thought it’s now or never. So it’s a combination, but anger brought me back to writing. And I think I put a lot of it in my writing too, but Whenever I overdo the ranting and the complaining, I try to keep those stories for me and then revisit later once there’s a bit of distance. Because otherwise, a story that’s pure anger, you’re just shouting at the reader. It doesn’t really work.

[00:07:57.170] – Rachel Thompson
But through the writing, you’re reaching that healing you were talking about. That first draft is also really important too, the angry draft, probably, I’m suspecting.

[00:08:07.010] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
It is. You’re putting everything you cannot say on paper. It is a release, but it’s a release for you, the writer. And I think that publishing it too soon is not gonna help the reader understand what you’re going through because it’s too raw. There is such a thing as too raw.

[00:08:24.610] – Rachel Thompson
You heard it from the editor of Raw Lit. There is such a thing as too raw.

[00:08:29.530] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
So that’s good.

[00:08:31.260] – Rachel Thompson
I wanted to know about Like, as a writer too, if there’s a revision move that you work with or have seen used that improves submissions— I guess you just spoke about the idea of writing that angry draft, putting it aside, and then refining it. Are there any other moves that you want to share with us that would be helpful?

[00:08:50.730] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
As a first thing, I really need to say is please check the guidelines. 95% of our submissions do not follow the guidelines. That gives me a lot of extra work when I should be spending that time reading. Going over the word count, we have until now, we’ve read everything, but this will change because we receive files that are double the word count and we’re not going to keep on reading those. The title, how we ask for the title to be put with the genre and then the title name, it’s for logistics really. It makes my work much easier because I prepare the files before sharing them with the team. And fonts, etc., we’re not asking for anything special. It’s what most magazines ask for anyway. And really, 95% do not respect the guidelines. That’s the first impression we get when we open a file. So it’s a shame. It takes 5 minutes to prepare it following the guidelines. After every submission call, I try to work on the guideline to simplify them. I will give it another go again before the next. But yeah, nobody reads them, it seems. And it’s a shame. It’s a shame because when you get one or two that don’t follow, okay, but when the majority is, at some point you have to take a break, step back, because it gets annoying.

[00:10:15.150]
We get anything and everything. Poetry sent us PDFs. So yes, follow the guidelines. Also, read the room, check the mastheads. For example, at Raw Lit, we are 5 women, so sending a story that is in the point of view of a sexist man is not going to get you published by us. I mean, it’s very, very unlikely, even if it’s stunning. So I would say first, have a quick look at the magazine itself, get a feel. You know, you don’t have to read the whole magazine. But try to get a feel of the magazine and do read the guidelines. Now, as for the files, the stories themselves, I think it’s very important to get a beta reader to check before you send to magazines. Have someone, uh, read it, even if it’s just for flow, because we receive a lot of stories that are excellent, but the flow isn’t quite there yet. And just one other pair of eyes on it would have pinpointed that.

[00:11:15.780] – Rachel Thompson
I was wondering actually if you could say more about that too, because I wanted to talk about craft issues you see when the flow isn’t working, I guess. What are you seeing? And when it is working, what are you seeing?

[00:11:26.560] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
When it’s working, you don’t see it. You just start reading and you go to the end. Yes. When there’s a flow issue, it’s gonna stop you. You’re like, wait, what? How does that happen? Why is this here when it should be further down? So these are the kind of pieces that would require a lot of editing. And I’m always hesitant to ask for too much editing. I prefer a light edit. This is the kind of stories we’re more likely to choose for the free feedback because they need quite a bit of work. The flow is the rhythm of the piece. If the rhythm is broken somewhere, the reader will stop reading and might go back at the beginning to try to make sense of what they’re reading now. It’s a shame because it can usually be fixed really easily. The other thing is, as I mentioned the form before, because we also do poetry, so form is really— and hybrids, where form is really important. Sometimes form chosen, it contains the story instead of putting it out. So I think we need to be really careful with the form we choose. It really has to work with the story, not against it.

[00:12:33.390]
And yeah, especially with hybrids. Same goes with repetitions. I love repetitions. I overuse them occasionally too, but they need to work to help with the structure of the story, to help with the melody in a way. If they don’t flow perfectly, then it’s maybe better not to use them at all because it’s got to make it lyrical. It is like poetry. You have each word, or flash fiction, each word needs to have its place and counts. Because it’s short form. We see a lot of— I mentioned the show Don’t Tell Rule— we see a lot of stories that are excellent, but they are 95% told, and that makes them cold for the reader. You cannot feel it at all. So that would be, you have to check filters, because filters really create a distance with the reader when we read a story and every line starts with he sees, he hears, he watches, etc. You cannot fill that. It’s not needed. If the point of view has been well placed from the beginning of the story, the filters are unnecessary. The other thing, we see a lot of shifts in tenses and point of view.

[00:13:54.620]
Tenses can be really useful in a story. You can play with them, but it needs to be intentional. If you switch from past to present within a paragraph, as a reader, I’m out. I have to force myself back in the story because the tenses don’t make sense to me.

[00:14:11.010] – Rachel Thompson
When are we? What’s happening? That’s the questions you’re asking.

[00:14:14.290] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
We all do it every now and then. Again, that’s why I think beta readers are really important because they will see it. Yeah.

[00:14:21.430] – Rachel Thompson
Because I think we, do it in first drafts, but that’s what redrafting is for.

[00:14:26.560] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yeah.

[00:14:27.220] – Rachel Thompson
And I just want to highlight what you said too about filtering language, because I think that is one of those kind of secret skills that you can develop as a writer and go, we don’t need the words that describe a sensation like I see, I feel, I hear. It needs to be written how a person experiences that or how that specific narrator or character experiences it, which would just be a sound over there, “Hurk!” Yes, exactly.

[00:14:57.600] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Because we want to be in the head of the main character, and putting those words takes us back out. It reminds us that we are reading the story. And sensory details. Sensory details so that you anchor the reader in the world. Again, it’s about the sound, the smell, the touch. There’s no need to overdo it because you don’t want the world to completely take over the story. The story needs to come through it, but by placing some of those, the reader is in the action with the character. I can’t think of any other right now.

[00:15:34.210] – Rachel Thompson
I think those are great tips already, so thank you for sharing those. So generous. I’m gonna bring some questions from people in the Lit Mag Love course that I have here. On the question of that first impression, One of the things that comes up quite a bit when I’m teaching the Lit Mag Love course about submitting and publishing, in some ways it’s a bit of a distraction, in some ways it’s important, I think too, is around the cover letter. People are really, what is this cover letter supposed to have in it? And I have a question here from Susan who’s in the current course cohort is like, how much do cover letters and publication history influence your reading and decision making, if at all?

[00:16:14.670] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Not at all. I don’t read the forms until we’ve made our decisions. I don’t know about other magazines, but what we do is I prepare the files, I share the files, we all get reading. Once the decisions have been made, so yes, no, maybes, once we have our 12 finalists, the ones that will get published, then I go check the files and then I go check the biographies, etc. We never read anything else. We read the bios and just have a quick read in case anything needs editing before adding them to the files. We don’t read any of the rest, except in the art we need to use the descriptions, etc. But when it comes to prose and poetry, I will have a quick look to see if there’s any important information in the letter, like using a different email to reply, something like this. Otherwise, no. And I think most magazines, they just want, “Hello, my name is, this is my story, so many words, and here’s my bio.” For us, the biography doesn’t matter. We love having new writers. It’s lovely to see writers we already know as well. But the team reads blind.

[00:17:24.960]
I remove every name and information from the files before sending them. And I have a really bad memory when it comes to names, so— The minute I’ve removed the name from the file, I’ve forgotten who wrote it, which suits me perfectly fine.

[00:17:39.820] – Rachel Thompson
In that case, it’s a superpower.

[00:17:41.890] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
It is.

[00:17:43.570] – Rachel Thompson
And then Susan also wanted to know if there are topics, themes, or perspectives you wish you saw more of in submissions right now.

[00:17:50.550] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
I think everything. It doesn’t have to be something extremely traumatic. It can be more mundane. It can be everyday life, everyday struggle, but we welcome anything and any subject. We see a lot of really dark stories. There’s a lot about loss. So we actually welcome when it’s something a little different, but we welcome loss too, because it’s this part of life. I would say just write what you wanna write. That’s what I do as a writer. I rarely follow prompts. I just, I feel like writing something. I just write it. Whether it’s any good is another question for later, but write what you feel like writing. But we’re looking for really raw honesty. Put yourself in the story. If you’re telling your story, you need to be in there. If you’re writing fiction, again, we need to hear your voice in it. The voice is something I forgot to mention. The voice is very important. A lot of the pieces we selected this time around that we actually published on the 21st, 2 days ago, a lot of them, we picked them for the voice. The poetry, there were a few pieces where the voice was just absolutely magnificent.

[00:19:01.370]
And the minute we read the poem, we knew, okay, that’s a yes, this one is getting in the magazine. So let your voice come through. And I think that requires, I was talking about empathy before, but be kind to yourself, let yourself be heard. Because a lot of us, especially when we start writing, I know I was really scared of putting myself in there, and the result was that my stories were cold. They lacked something. It took me some time to realize that I had to allow myself to be vulnerable, put a bit of me in there, or a lot, depending on the stories, and to be kind to myself. It’s okay to put yourself in there. If you do not feel the story you write, the reader won’t either.

[00:19:47.830] – Rachel Thompson
Yeah, I love the way that you said that about the empathy for self. I do work with a lot of writers where I find at some point I have to say, actually, we’re really interested in you. You are someone we want to listen to, we want to hear from, we want to know your perspective, your point of view. And I think sometimes people come to writing— if I can get a little, I guess, psychological about it too— but it’s like, as people maybe who haven’t been heard very much or listened to, and so then think, you know, I’m just I’m gonna make this story. But as you’re saying, there’s a coldness to that then if you’re not inserting your own point of view, and that’s where the rawness and the heat comes from.

[00:20:30.550] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
And it has to be honest because sometimes we get stories that it feels like they have been borrowed from someone else. Sometimes I try to copy someone else’s style of writing, and it never comes out quite true. Or writing a story that I don’t feel— and again, To me, it feels borrowed. Just be true about writing in general.

[00:20:51.800] – Rachel Thompson
And then actually, this is linked to a topic we were talking about, or just aging in general, I guess. But, um, Sassy was asking, Sassy Kella from the course community right now, if a magazine’s editors and contributors skew younger, so in this case maybe that’s some of the readers on your team, I’m not sure, what helps you recognize and champion work from older writers or writers with a longer life and work history, if anything?

[00:21:18.530] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Our group, we are all mostly menopausal or full-on menopause. So we, and we are all women, which I was thinking what you said, writers that come to it because they haven’t been heard. I think that very often women do that. We come to it because our society has not been very paying much attention to us. Especially the older women. We grew up in a society that just ignored us or harassed us. So it’s important that we say what we have to say now. We welcome anybody. As I said, I don’t check the bios. I forget the name instantly. The team reads blind. So for us, it’s really a question of, we read this piece, does it talk to us? Can we relate? Is it something we haven’t heard before? Is it something we’ve heard before but it’s told in a completely different way? And It’s a story that’s important to share. We also have to reject a lot of stories that are really important, that have a really important message, because we get a lot of— we had a hard time this time picking the last 12. The quality was absolutely brilliant and each story was worth publishing, but it comes down to the voice.

[00:22:31.260]
Tell us your story with your own words. Some writing is beautiful with lots of metaphors and simile. It’s one style, it’s literary, it’s fine. If yours is not like this, if yours is plainer, shorter sentences, do it that way. Don’t try to imitate someone else. Do what feels right for you because that’s your voice.

[00:22:52.340] – Rachel Thompson
So I did want to ask you about the editing process, if there’s anything that’s a part of editing that surprises you still, or that you remember surprising you when you first became an editor.

[00:23:04.620] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
I knew it would be a lot of work. I just, jumped into it quite fast, spontaneously. I did not anticipate how much work it would be, but I have no regrets. The logistics behind, it’s one thing we read the work, we choose the work, et cetera, but it’s the logistics behind, because as a writer, I have zero patience. So I decided everybody would be answered to within 2 weeks. And as a young, when I came back to writing, A few editors sent me some feedback, just a line here and there, and I thought it was incredibly generous, kind, and it really helped me to keep writing. So I tried to personalize the answers as well. As it’s been said, we received over 200 submissions, so I spent a week sending 230 emails. I think 95% were personalized. Sometimes it just isn’t a good fit, they send it to the wrong magazine. So that’s all I can say. I don’t have much else to say. But with everybody else, I always try— I use comments from our readers and our editors, and then I add my own. So it’s either I will tell them what we liked about it, which one was a favorite, because most of them send 3 pieces, or if we have any suggestions, like something that didn’t work and took us out of the story, I will try to use all those comments and suggestions.

[00:24:29.590]
I try to make a bit of a soup out of it, and that’s it. I don’t spend a lot of time on the feedback in each email because it’s a lot of emails, but it was important to me to do it.

[00:24:40.520] – Rachel Thompson
But the fact that you spend the time at all does set you apart. So I think it seems like you would be a good place to send work to where even if you weren’t accepted, you would learn something about your work from that experience. So that’s wonderful.

[00:24:54.450] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
We pick one poem and one story for feedback as well, and they receive full feedback. We check the plot, we check the structure, we check the line editing, etc. And our poetry editor is incredible, so I think getting feedback from her is quite something. I’m learning a lot about poetry thanks to her.

[00:25:17.830] – Rachel Thompson
You spoke earlier a bit about accepting pieces that are close to ready. But can we clarify even more? Like, do you work with writers to edit the pieces as a poetry editor, for example, or is the expectation that every submission comes in publish-ready?

[00:25:35.510] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Some do and some don’t. If the piece works as it is, we’re not going to go around changing one comma. Oh, you know, I did this at the beginning and then I realized that there’s no need, it’s not making a big difference to the story, the story is ready, so I leave it. If we feel that changing a little something will really bring out the story, make it stronger, then we will suggest it. And the poetry editor again is incredible. Again, most of the work we published without touching it, but she sent suggestions regarding the form, and she’s got an incredible ear for the rhythm of the work as well. With the prose. If we find that a sentence takes us out, we might offer to remove some filters if there are a few here and there that again we feel are a little heavy for the story and don’t need to be there. But it would be only a few suggestions and they are optional. So once we accept the story, the story is accepted whether or not they accept our suggestions or not. It doesn’t matter, the story is accepted as is. But we do work if we think that there are simple little edits that can make the story stronger, we do send them and we do suggest them.

[00:26:53.790] – Rachel Thompson
Wonderful. And the poetry editor is Katrina Moinet, is Moinet, I mean?

[00:26:58.120] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yes.

[00:26:58.840] – Rachel Thompson
She gets the shout out.

[00:26:59.960] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yeah, she’s incredible. She’s incredible. She’s an amazing poet. She’s been published in Raw Lit before becoming an editor, published twice, I think. Incredible voice. She’s really kind, she takes her time, she’s really passionate about the work we publish, and yes, she will check and check and check again and make sure that everything is exactly as it should be to make each poem shine. There’s no other word. It’s been an incredible experience working with her as an editor. I always enjoy working with her as a poet, but as an editor, she’s incredible.

[00:27:32.560] – Rachel Thompson
That’s the right place to use that word shine, the Write, Publish, and Shine podcast. We use it for a reason. Because you’re also actively submitting, how does that shape the way you edit? I think you’d mentioned that about the feedback already, but just in terms of communicating rejections or encouragement to writers.

[00:27:51.640] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Well, first off, it’s the other way around. As an editor, I have improved dramatically as a writer because I read so much, because reading other people’s work is much easier than reading your own. So you see what works and what doesn’t, and then you can apply it to your work. So I know I’ve improved dramatically since starting the magazine. I think I have zero patience as a writer, so most of the basic rules I set up from the early days for the magazine about replying within 2 weeks, offering feedback, etc., are based on that. I think the writing community was a lot stronger before half of the The writers left X and went to Blue Sky and was kinder to. So I think the writing community deserves to be stronger. We deserve to be kind to each other because we’re not really competing. Each of us has a different market. There’s room for everybody. There’s so many magazines out there. So yeah, I’m, it’s like paying it forward a little bit by sending feedback, by doing my best to personalize the answers. Because writing is hard. Submitting is really hard, especially when you receive a lot of rejections.

[00:29:07.090]
So it’s just a little push. You can do this. Keep going.

[00:29:10.610] – Rachel Thompson
So true. Thinking about the community too, I guess I’m wondering about your take on the current state of submissions and like what’s happening in writing writ large, the whole of the community. I mean, you said more kindness and empathy is needed within the writing community itself.

[00:29:30.200] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Everything, not just the writing community.

[00:29:32.200] – Rachel Thompson
Yeah, of course, of course. In general, just like everywhere. Yeah, I guess I’m just wondering, because you’ve mentioned having more submissions than normal, like, and I’ve seen that happen across Lit Mag. Sometimes that’s a function of just being around and getting well known and people wanting to send in more work, but I think for us It’s because until now I was working alone.

[00:29:54.450] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Then I brought in a prose editor, Marie-Louise McGuinness. Again, it’s someone I had published and we became friends. So I invited her in because it was becoming more work. And the minute I decided to create an actual team, because it was getting again more work, things— that’s when we received a lot more submissions. Maybe it made us look more serious as a team rather than a one person. I don’t know. I’ve been around since 2023, so a lot actually of the people who submit, submit almost every issue. But then we got a lot of new poets, I think, because Katrina joined the team as well. Our biggest issue has been trying to find the art because that has been decreasing. That’s a shame because it really is part of all it. So I’m planning to figure out something to make sure we always have the right art for the issue as well.

[00:30:52.080] – Rachel Thompson
Yeah, it’s interesting you say that because we publish art in Room magazine as well, and that is also the harder part for me, is to gather the art. But sometimes I thought it’s because I’m not as connected to the artistic community, maybe, and more to the poetry and CNF community.

[00:31:08.180] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Well, as a last resort, I eventually contact artists that I’ve worked with, telling them we need art. Send us something, please. But I think that where we’re leading now is that we’ll always have the Sabine Mott, but I might have a group of in-house artists as well to fill in the gaps because it’s really difficult to find art and the stories and the poems deserve the right art. They do. It’s something I’m thinking about now and I will fix by January because it is getting really, really difficult. And it’s a shame. I used to get a lot more and more varied as well when I started. Now a lot of the art that is sent our way is just not for Raw Lit at all. It’s not the vibe. Just isn’t.

[00:31:55.980] – Rachel Thompson
I think finally I’d like to ask you just if there’s anything upcoming that you want writers to know about with Raw Lit. Anything at all you wanted to share?

[00:32:04.230] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Oh, well, we just published Issue 9 on Sunday and we are pretty proud of it. Because we open on the 1st and we publish the same month. So I’m really tired today because it was a lot of work. Because again, this is what you were asking earlier on, as a writer, when a piece is accepted and it doesn’t get published until 5 months later, I’ve lost interest in it. So yes, we open on the 1st and by the end of the month, everything has been replied to and we have published the issue. Wow. Because I have zero patience. Yes. And we will open again on the 1st of January. It might only be for one week this time. So get writing. And I will share some of the rawest poems and pieces, the ones that have stayed with me. Some of them are from the second issue and the third, I think. And they’ve really stayed with me all these years because this is the kind of piece that you start reading and you go, yes, I want this. I’m publishing this. So I’ll share that with you.

[00:33:15.280] – Rachel Thompson
I’ll post those links in the show notes. Did you want to also talk about them though? What stayed with you? Maybe not, we won’t read from them, but, um, just describe them a bit.

[00:33:24.240] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
All right. Uh, so first one is a poem called Boys on the Beach by D.L.C. Hansen. It’s a poem that has two stories. It’s two boys on the beach. One is going to the beach with his family to enjoy the beach, and the other one is— I don’t want to spoil it— it’s a little boy who immigrated and will not make it out of the beach. And that story is actually— that’s a poem. When I started, I didn’t think I was ready to start nominating pieces because I was too new to it. But when I read that poem, not only did I know I would publish it, but I also knew it was time to start nominating because it’s stunning. He doesn’t overdo the language. There’s a symmetry to it, which is really clever. But the story is, although the language is plain, he doesn’t use all these metaphors, all this. It’s just really plain language, but it’s so incredibly strong, and it makes you realize the unfairness of comparing these two lives. It still is one of my favorite poems. Another one, I had picked a few, and mentioned this one, Maria Thomas, that was in issue 3.

[00:34:40.510]
It’s called “The Packed Too Early Bag.” It’s flash fiction. It’s about loss of a miscarriage, which is sadly relatable to so many of us. What really spoke to me, again, is really clever writing. First, she’s really tender in her writing. That’s something I should have mentioned I mentioned earlier, I’ve got a soft spot for tender writing. I really do. It can be as raw, it can be a horrible story, but if it’s written with tenderness, ah, it will break my heart. Maria does that. She’s one of the best for it. Her writing is incredible. The sensory details she put in it are stunning. But that story, I thought it was incredible because the bag itself becomes a character in the story. And the bag itself brings on the loss and the empathy for the mother. It’s really beautifully done. I’ll share 4 with you because there’s another poem from Oliver Clare. I absolutely adore Oliver. He’s actually German and he has so much empathy in his voice that his writing is absolutely stunning. His poems always, always touch me. And the other one is called Milk Drunk by T.L. Tomžanović. Sorry if I mispronounce the name.

[00:36:02.610]
It’s the finest of my folk, microfiction. I would want readers to read it and to tell me why it works and why it’s so strong. It’s a horrifying story, but again, the flow is perfect. And although the act committed is one of the worst that can be, she managed to make you feel for the mother. So yeah, I will, I will send you the links to these four. There are many more. Everything I publish, I love, but these really, these four have stayed with me all these years. It’s incredible.

[00:36:38.370] – Rachel Thompson
That’s so great to share those because we were talking about flow and how it works, and now it’s like, here’s an example of how it works, and it’s really helpful for readers to know what stuck with you.

[00:36:49.190] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Thank you.

[00:36:49.610] – Rachel Thompson
So yeah, I look forward to sharing all of those links. Is there anything else that maybe you thought I was going to ask you and I didn’t ask that we can ask now?

[00:37:00.270] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
No, I don’t think so. I think we’ve come through most of it. I would just like to remind that it is because it’s Raw Lit, we need to feel emotional pull. Some other magazines are not looking for that. We are. It’s a theme of the magazine. And if we’re not moved by what we read, we’re not going to publish.

[00:37:22.090] – Rachel Thompson
Well, thank you. I’m so glad that you said yes, uh, to this conversation.

[00:37:26.010] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Well, thank you very much for inviting me. It was lovely. Not as scary as I expected.

[00:37:32.510] – Rachel Thompson
Oh good, try not to be so scary. Everything you’ve shared has just made you feel like such a wonderful home for words, and, uh, especially people writing with emotional intensity. I think it’s great for them to know about this place and to have some good pointers about how to shape the work and obstacles maybe to work through in redrafting before you submit. Mostly just reading the guidelines. I’m sure it must feel really wonderful when someone actually submits following the guidelines.

[00:38:03.020] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
One had everything correct. The first one to send followed all the guidelines. I put a note for the readers, extra point following the guidelines, because it was after we had been open for a few days and it was the first file that actually followed the guidelines. So yes, please do. It’s for logistics. It doesn’t take the writer too long. It takes the editor a lot longer to fix every single file when they’re not done properly.

[00:38:28.610] – Rachel Thompson
Yeah, it’s reciprocal care, isn’t it? Because it’s the care that they put into their writing and formatting and sending to you their submission is also the care that you can put in.

[00:38:38.240] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
And we’re not really difficult. I mean, I really hate Calibri size 11 because I’ve got old eyes, so I cannot see Every time I see it, I have to look, then come and change the font. So please avoid that.

[00:38:51.160] – Rachel Thompson
That’s a really good, very specific tip for this editor. So that’s good. Thank you. Well, just thanks again for being here. Really appreciate it. I know the people who will watch this in replay will be able to appreciate it as well. And sorry that we didn’t have so many people live, but maybe that took some of the pressure off of the conversation as well.

[00:39:10.650] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
Yes, it probably did.

[00:39:14.820] – Rachel Thompson
And thank you, Michelle, for being here live as well. And just have a wonderful rest of your day, Delphine.

[00:39:21.700] – Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos
You too, and thank you again.

[00:39:24.520] – Rachel Thompson
That’s it for today’s conversation with Delphine Gauthier-Georgakopoulos of Raw Lit mag. I loved how much Delphine emphasized the small practical details that make a piece a pleasure to receive for editors. Formatting is not glamorous, but it is a kind of respect, and it sets your work up to be read clearly without any misunderstandings or extra labour on the part of the people that are receiving your work. I also loved how committed Raw Lit is to responding quickly to writers. That speed felt really centered in so much care for the writer. You can find the show notes and all the links to the pieces that Delphine went through for this episode at rachelthompson.co/podcast. This is episode 121, so that’s where you’ll find it on my site. And thanks for listening to Write, Publish, and Shine. If this episode helped you think about submissions, think about your writing in a new way, please subscribe. And if you have a moment, leave a review. It really helps other creative writers find this show, and it’s one of the simplest ways to support my work here. This podcast is hosted by me, Rachel Thompson, with sound editing by Adam Linder.

[00:40:35.200]
To learn more about my work supporting writers, visit rachelthompson.co and sign up for my weekly Writerly Love Letters. I acknowledge the El Muzina Bedouin lands in South Sinai, Egypt, where I recorded this episode. I stand in solidarity with occupied peoples and with those enduring ongoing occupation and siege, and am committed to justice and care.