Indie Editors Series: Claire Albrecht
Known for publishing fresh, engaging voices with work that delivers on their broad, fun themes, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone unfamiliar with The Suburban Review.
With over ten years on the indie publishing scene, TSR has had an incredible team of editors working to bring things together and their current Editor in Chief, Claire Albrecht, is no exception.
Claire joins us in the latest instalment of our Indie Editors Interview series to share more on her journey into the sector, fostering creativity in the Aussie-lit scene, and why poetry is great but genre is cool and fun.
Enjoy!
I tend to kick things off with a couple of easy ones: Can you tell us a little more about yourself and your journey into editing and writing so far?
Writing has been a part of my life since I was writing innocent little poems as a kid. I even started a manuscript of a ‘novella’ once in primary school, which never got finished (pretty writerly if you ask me). Since those days, I’ve stuck with writing through high school, a Uni double degree, Honours in Poetry with my mentor and friend Keri Glastonbury, and then went through a PhD with Keri that broke my soul a little bit and was still somehow a good time.
I also started editing pretty early, working with Newcastle street presses as a sub-editor and layout designer during high school as a way to capitalise on my wordiness and make good grammar and spelling somehow cool. I worked with a few more magazines over uni and became a volunteer reader for Overland, before applying for a similar role at The Suburban Review. I guess that was the link between writing and editing I had been looking for because I’ve been there for a while now and have ended up Editor-in-Chief.
And for those who may not have heard of The Suburban Review, can you give us a little synopsis of the history of the journal and the type of writing TSR publishes?
I love The Suburban Review – it’s a really fantastic mix of emerging and mid-career writers and artists and has this particular quirkiness that is hard to describe. The work we publish is always surprising in some way, even if that surprise is relatively small or quiet. We mostly platform Australian writers and artists, but we occasionally publish some wonderful works from international contributors.
The journal began ten years ago this year – which we’re celebrating! – and was originally an annual print publication with ongoing free digital content. Unfortunately, that model isn’t financially sustainable, and we now publish a quarterly PDF publication, which we work hard to make accessible and beautiful.
What drew you to take on the role of editor for the TSR, and what have been some of your favourite moments so far?
I was pretty hesitant to apply for the Editor role. It seemed like a lot of work. And it is… But it’s extremely rewarding, fun, and heartwarming. My constant highlight is working with a team of thoughtful, intelligent, excellent people—it’s really a dream. Even though we all work remotely, there’s a sense of closeness that comes from creating something wonderful together and working through the difficulties and uncertainties. And, of course, every time we get an issue out is a win!
I’ve also really enjoyed publishing some experimental digital work this year, which is free online as part of our ten-year celebrations. It’s great to push past our boundaries a bit and see what people are creating that might not work for a PDF issue.
As an accomplished poet and writer, you’ll know there are many ways that writing and editing overlap, yet many find editing their work challenging. What advice would you share with emerging writers to help with this?
I’m probably not the best person for this because I am terrible at editing my own work. I’m a ‘get it all out, and it’ll be either good or bad’ kind of person, and I have probably abandoned some interesting poems that would have improved with some editing.
So I guess my advice would be to give it to someone else—find a collaborator you can swap work with and share feedback. Practising editing others’ work really helps to identify where you could improve your own writing, and being able to see that through someone else’s notes can make critical feedback easier to take on.
Failing that, just write more, write different—there are always more words to dig up.
The gap between submitting work to a press and waiting on a response can sometimes feel shrouded in mystery, which I think deters many writers from submitting their work more. What are some of the misconceptions you come up against as an editor?
I guess the one that comes to mind is that editorial teams just leave submissions sitting there while they have a lovely time. We’re all actually so busy and working so hard. Generally, if we take longer to get to a submission than we said we would, it’s because we either got so many that we’re all swamped, or something else unusual has happened that is lengthening the process. Plus, we all have other jobs that allow us to work in this difficult, underpaid industry. That said, we usually take less time than we say because we like to be positively surprising.
One thing I hope submitters know is that, at least with our journal and those that I have worked with, their work is always given consideration and treated with respect. We have at least three readers on each reading team, which all go through and rank a chuck of submissions, and we all get together to have a (much cherished) selection meeting to discuss the highest-ranked pieces.
As a follow-on, what do you wish more people did more (or perhaps less) of during the submission/editing process?
Well, I do wish people looked at the guidelines closely. But generally, our submitters are great, and it’s always a pleasure to look through them.
Submissions that have already had a close eye over them for mistakes are usually more successful, as it’s easier to commit to and enjoy reading a work that doesn’t pull us out with noticeable errors.
Rejection of creative work can be notoriously difficult to get comfortable with. Do you have words of wisdom as a fellow creative and editor at a leading digital journal that might help others?
Only that we all get rejected, all the time, everywhere.
The game is patience and learning to recognise when you’ve created something that particularly suits a publication. People have different strategies for this—some write directly for a callout and tailor their work to that publication and that theme. Others just have a set of current works they can pull from if a callout matches that work.
Both are valid, but we can usually tell whether something has been written deliberately for a theme or if it’s ‘from the archive’.
My editorial advice is: if you think something ‘sort of’ matches a callout, it probably doesn’t. You’ll know when the time is right for a particular piece.
We’re seeing small indie publications growing in popularity across the Aus Lit Scene as more people seek different ways to publication and being part of creative communities. What role do you think these play in fostering creativity, and are there any trends you've noticed across the scene, good or bad?
I’m very excited about the range of small publications—of course, the more there are, the harder it is to push through and get yours read by a sustainable audience, but I think the demand is there.
I mostly just hope that anyone starting a new publication takes the time to consider their ethical stance, publishing standards, and operational requirements before they go too deep. To best respect and support our writers and artists, there’s a level of *ugh* admin that needs to happen in the background.
With that said, go forth and create! We’re about to start our Jumpstart a Journal program, which brings many of these people together and equips them to set up and run a journal, and we’re always thrilled when participants launch their own.
And lastly, how can readers engage with TSR or your own work - are you currently working on any upcoming creative projects?
Honestly, I haven’t written creatively in ages—I’ve had an extended break after coming back from a long US residency, and the next thing I write will probably be a steamy romance. Poems are hard. My brain is tired. Genre is cool and fun.
But in terms of TSR – we’re launching an issue very soon (or it’s already out); we’ve got our workshops starting in July, which will result in a participant-produced journal called Hills Hoist. We’re publishing special digital content each month! You can follow us on socials, sign up for our newsletter, or check the website whenever you feel like it for updates.
CLAIRE ALBRECHT is a poet and editor from Mulubinba (Newcastle). Her work has been published widely in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. She was the 2019 Emerging Writers Festival fellow at the State Library of Victoria, a 2020 Varuna ‘Writing Fire, Writing Drought’ fellow, the 2021 West Darling Arts Writer in Residence, and a 2022 resident at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in New Mexico, USA. Claire's published books include pinky swear and handshake, and her poem 'The Anabranch' won the 2022 Newcastle Poetry Prize. Claire is Editor-in-Chief of The Suburban Review.
Elaine Chennatt is a writer, educator and psychology student currently residing in nipaluna. She has a special interest in bibliotherapy (how we use literature to make sense of our lives) and is endlessly curious about the creative philosophies of others. She lives with her husband and two bossy dachshunds on the not-so-sunny side of the river (IYKYK). Find her online at wordswithelaine.com.
