Rick Rofihe is the Publisher & Editor-In-Chief of Anderbo.com and is the author of Father Must, a collection of short stories published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux (Editor: Jonathan Galassi; Agent: Gail Hochman) and BOYS who DO the BOP: 9 New Yorker Stories. Besides The New Yorker, his fiction has appeared in Grand Street, Open City, Unsaid, Swink, and on Slush Pile, Fictionaut, and Epiphany. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, SPY, and on Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood. He blogs at GoodReads.com. He is a recipient of the Whiting Writers’ Award and has taught writing at Columbia University, and currently teaches privately in New York City. He is a member of PEN and The Authors Guild, and is an advisor to the Vilcek Foundation for their 2011 prizes in the field of literature For the eighth year, the judge of the annual RRofihe Trophy Short Story Contest at for Open City magazine. Find him on Facebook and Twitter and find Anderbo on Facebook and Twitter
Natasha Stagg: How does your magazine fit into the world of publishing today?
Rick Rofihe: We at anderbo.com like to think we are publishing a virtual journal with a printed-copy feel.
NS: Does it do anything that no one else is doing?
RR: We don’t archive–we just add. (We’re into our 6th year, but we’re still on the first issue.)
NS: Where are you from, and where do you live now?
RR: I grew up in a small town, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia–that’s on the east coast in Canada. I’ve also lived in London, England and Boston, Massachusetts, but for most of my “adult” life I’ve lived in downtown Manhattan–New York City.
NS: How do you feel about literary journals in general: Simply a necessary means to an end, or something more worthwhile than even anthologies these days?
RR: I glance at many literary journals and anthologies, but I’m personally more interested in looking at daily newspapers.
NS: For those who don’t know–what kind of stuff does your journal publish?
RR: Fiction. Poetry. “fact” (creative nonfiction). And photography.
NS: And how do we submit?
RR: Fiction – submit stories of up to 3500 words. Poetry – submit up to 6 poems. “Fact” – submit up to 1500 words.
No reading fees for above. Send submissions to editors@anderbo.com A submission may be sent in the body of an e-mail and/or as an attachment in any common file format such as doc or rtf. Mac users, please be sure that your doc files are readable by PCs. No docx files, ever. And please, only one story per submission. Poets, we require your poems to be in the e-mail, or together as a single attachment. Simultaneous submissions OK with notification. If you don’t hear from us within a month, let us know.
Got a story of more than 3500 but less than 5000 words? Go to RRofihe Trophy (Reading fee: $10.)
Anderbo Poetry Prize (Reading fee: $10.)
Anderbo Creative Nonfiction Prize (Reading fee: $10.)
NS: Do you think literary journals are endangered?
RR: Probably some hard-copy ones are–due to production and distribution costs.
NS: Is becoming “online only” something to be worried about?
RR: What–me worry?
NS: Will only the fittest survive, and could this be a good thing?
RR: My high school had a Latin motto that translated to “A Sound Mind in a Sound Body”–but I’ve always seen it as “Sound Mind. Sound Body. Take Your Pick.”
NS: What about book-publishing?
RR: No matter what form a “book” might take in the future, will anyone have the attention-span to read one?
NS: Had you heard of Sonora Review before this?
RR: Actually, I think so.