An interview with Branch Magazine editor Gillian Sze
Gillian Sze is the editor of the beautiful Canadian online magazine, Branch. She’s also the author of a number of excellent books of poetry, including Fish Bones (2009), This Is the Colour I Love You Best (2008), and the forthcoming The Anatomy of Clay. We dig her writing, so we were excited when she announced that she was starting an online magazine—especially as it gave us another chance to interview her about all things written, Canadian and just plain lovely.
Black Heart: Where is Branch geographically located, and does that affect the type of work you publish?
Gillian Sze: Branch’s primary address would be the Internet. I work on it from Montreal and Roberutsu from Winnipeg, but we do all our communicating online: email, Google docs, Skype, the occasional phone call or urgent text message. So as long as there’s Internet access, we’re good to go. For our fourth issue, Pop, Rob was in Asia so Benny Lin (in Calgary) guest edited. We still consulted with Rob from time to time while he was in the middle of a rice field in Vietnam. (I just picture him aiming his laptop at the sky.)
That being said, it’s of course easier for us to find contributors who are physically closer to us—either we know them or our friends tell them about Branch—so we can get pretty Montreal/Toronto/Winnipeg/Brandon heavy. We always strive to balance it out coast to coast. At times that involves some intense Internet-stalking.
Screenshot from Branch's "Pop" issue
BH: What’s your magazine’s rallying cry or raison d’être?
GS: It just got to a point where Rob and I realized that we were doing a lot of show-and-tell with each other: “Check out this guy—I love his work,” etc. We felt that it was time to turn to our creative friends, influences and obsessions, fill a small corner of the Internet with them and share it with anyone who cared.
Each issue is governed by a theme, and we’re interested in how writers and artists approach it and how far they’ll go. (Our Hunger issue is a good example: we saw hunger for food, for love, artistic impoverishment, typeface made out of raw meat, poems about breastfeeding and hamburgers, all kinds.) Then we synthesize the range of ideas, concepts and art forms and see how, as a collection, they speak (or don’t speak) to each other.
BH: Who are some of your favorite writers, and how do they influence your work at the magazine?
GS: Yikes, these favourite-lists are tough. It’s always changing for me: new loves, old loves renewed, second glances. These days, thanks to school, I’ve been mainly reading fiction, so just off the top of my head, I’m digging Andrew Holleran, Jeanette Winterson, Salman Rushdie, Lorrie Moore, Eileen Myles and Anne Carson. Right now, beside my bed, you’ll find a small stack of books: a collection of short stories by Hemingway, essays by Nicole Brossard, and two poetry books (Our Extraordinary Monsters by Vanessa Moeller and Bogman’s Music by Tammy Armstrong). I always sleep next to Hemingway. The others may be swapped for another but he sticks around.
Reading a lot and reading widely exposes you to what’s out there. (And there’s a lot out there.) I don’t necessarily seek out my favourites’ voices, but like anyone organizing an issue, we have a sense of quality, originality and beauty.
BH: What type of writing are you most interested in publishing?
GS: All types and all forms. Rob and I envisioned Branch as being something leisurely and pleasurable, something readers and viewers can flip through during their lunch break. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with longer pieces, but the natural shape Branch takes on—we just decided that brevity was more suitable. I cap off written submissions at 500 words, but we’ve certainly included pieces longer than that. We just lean toward pithiness and tiny packages of text.
BH: Is there anything that drives you crazy when reading submissions, or that you absolutely will NOT publish, and if so, what?
GS: So far, nothing has driven me crazy. Spelling mistakes and plain old carelessness irk me but I’m like that about anything: menus, instruction manuals, and undergraduate papers.
BH: Are there any specific examples of pieces you’ve recently published that writers should examine further?
GS: In our current issue, Pop, you should take another look at Ray Hsu and Katie Fedosenko’s collaboration, “Pop and Population: The Branding of Vancouver.” They explore the notion of “public art,” spurred on by art commissioned in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The link they provide, “aftermap: bit.ly/cRo2Xn,” is the meatiest part of their piece. It details the art sites in Vancouver on Google Maps. On the left-hand side, if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll find links to videos they made where they visited the locations and shared their thoughts. The two of them put a huge amount of work into this collaboration. My favourite video is where Ray comments on Aerodynamic Forms in Space by Rodney Graham. It’s hilarious. Plus, you catch a glimpse of him dancing in there, too.
BH: Have you ever gotten a really awful submission, something SO TERRIBLE that you’ve printed it out, covered with red ink (and maybe even some rude drawings), and tacked to your wall as a “What Not To Do” example to be mocked and referenced by anyone in the office? And if so, have you ever taken up the matter with the writer, in an effort to either understand or educate them?
GS: I haven’t encountered any heinous crimes so far. When I was reading submissions for Maisonneuve way back, I received a cover letter detailing the writer’s home life: her husband, children, grandchildren, pets and hobbies. It was charming but I wouldn’t advise doing that.
BH: In closing, what advice would you give to writers who would like to some day have their work published in your magazine?
GS: Generally, they say that the best way to gauge whether you should submit to a magazine is to see if they’ve published anything similar to your own—stylistically, subject-wise, and so on. We don’t completely agree. We say that if you think you have something that fits, do it up.
Branch can be found online at branchmagazine.com. For submission guidelines, click here.
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