Last night some of the Word Pirates and I went to a panel of nine literary journal editors at San Francisco State University. Did you know that the Bay Area has the highest concentration of literary journals in the United States? I didn’t.

The panel included editors from McSweeney’s, Zyzzyva, and Instant City. It was interesting to see the faces behind these magazines and hear their thoughts about publishing. Afterwards, we went out for drinks and talked about writing.

A couple of observations:

* We all liked Howard Junker, editor of Zyzzyva, the best. He was straightforward, funny, and insightful. He also wrote about the panel on his blog.

* I learned about Sidebrow, an online journal that “seeks fiction, poetry, art, essay, ephemera, found text, academic inquiries into mathematics, economics, & the sciences, political analysis, and literary, cultural, & art critique.” I find this site a little confusing, but also intriguing.

* I don’t like the word “community.” I realized last night that that word means nothing to me. It’s a big abstract word, and an ugly word to boot. When people use it, my eyes glaze over. This is a personal tick of mine.

* I do like Michelle Richmond. This is the second panel I’ve seen her on, and she is delightful!

* If Word Pirates ever do create a literary journal–and the idea has been thrown around–it will be online. Distribution sounds expensive and labor intensive.

* Speaking of that, Eli Horowitz talked about the packaging methods McSweeney’s uses. It is true that a journal shaped like a cigar box or that uses a magnet to hold three smaller books in place is more interesting to look at and handle. On the other hand, they must be so expensive to print and distribute. How does McSweeney’s do it?

* Awhile back, I submitted to Zoetrope and received some comments back with my rejection, which I took as a good sign. Apparently, I was kidding myself, because according to three separate accounts of people who have worked there, Zoetrope almost never publishes anything from the slush pile. For example, in the comments of this post, a former reader for Zoetrope shares how an editor who worked there for six years knew of only three occasions where they published stories from the slush pile. This particular site calls for a boycott of Zoetrope, which initially I was against (as you can see by my comment), but now I think it may be beyond boycotts: You are probably just wasting your time submitting there.