In continuing to highlight our guest readers for this year’s Winter Wheat festival, we asked Dave Essinger, our fiction reader for Saturday, November 8th, about his experiences as a writer and editor, and to share what he will be reading.
Essinger teaches creative writing at the University of Findlay in Ohio where he is also the editor of the literary magazine Slippery Elm. Essinger’s new post-apocalyptic novel This World and the Next was released in 2024 and in the interview that follows, he speaks to what it’s like to be writing about the end of the world when you feel like you’re in it and the problems of trying to publish work that’s too close to reality. Essinger also speaks to what he’s seeing as an editor and how to stand out for literary magazines and make the most of your submissions.
Essinger will be reading alongside poet Jonie McIntire on Saturday, November 8th, at 1:15 p.m. on Bowling Green State University’s campus. Don’t miss the chance to hear him read! Check out Winter Wheat’s schedule of events here. Additionally, you can read Essinger’s full bio here.
You share that you are a writer who remembers fallout drills in preparation of nuclear war as a child and that the world ending is a part of what influences your work. Your latest novel, This World and the Next, is a post-apocalyptic novel. Can you share how current events and experiences inspire you and your experiences imagining and writing about the world ending?
Well! As it happened, I was joking all along that I just needed to finish my post-apocalyptic novel before civilization actually ended. And then, I failed to do so: I completed the manuscript in March of 2020. It contains…a pandemic. Agents and editors everywhere said, sorry, the book read way too much like real life just then. Then it found a home in 2024, and I told my publisher I wanted to get it out before the election, because, haha, I wasn’t going to get burned a second time there! The published book contains some updates from the 2020 version and attributes the fall of civilization to sociopathic political leaders dismantling opposition, inciting false-flag unrest to stay in power, and appointing incompetent loyalists to positions of terrifying power. But don’t worry! It’s totally fiction. Not current events or anything. I was trying to be cautionary, not prophetic.
As the editor of Slippery Elm literary magazine at the University of Findlay, what are you noticing about trends in submissions right now? What can you share with writers who are submitting to literary magazines as an editor?
Like many magazines, we’re getting enormous numbers of submissions, of which we can accept maybe 3-4%. And as anyone who’s worked reading submissions will attest, it changes the way I write, as I imagine my own work crossing the desk of someone overwhelmed with writing that’s competent, and often really good—so, what separates good writing from unforgettable, and what stands out in a sea of very good work? My advice is always to read widely, know what’s out there, and stand out—make it easy on readers and editors who have difficult choices.
And…don’t take rejection too hard, because it’s a competitive but totally subjective process…maybe don’t pay out for contests unless you love the cause and get something back for your entry fee (every entrant for Slippery Elm gets a copy of the issue in the mail, for example)…and if you don’t feel like paying reading fees, we and many other journals take General submissions for free and are fine with simultaneous submissions. With so many writers writing, and so many journals out there, why not make some of those numbers work for you? If publication is the goal, it’s possible to submit widely without breaking the bank.
For those who haven’t attended Winter Wheat before, can you share about your experiences at Winter Wheat? How does it feel to be coming to Winter Wheat as a reader this year?
I haven’t been to every Winter Wheat…but almost! And I’m beyond thrilled to be invited as a reader this year—for the 25th anniversary, no less! Winter Wheat is a fantastic cultural contribution to northwest Ohio and the Midwest, and I’m always counseling students and friends to attend and propose panels and presentations because it’s friendly, free, and close to home. Among everything else, Winter Wheat is a wonderful resource for students and new writers, offering an approachable first writers’ conference experience without the cost and commitment of flying across the country. Winter Wheat has become a literary institution in the region, and should be on every writers’ calendar.
Can you share with us a little bit about what you will be reading?
Could be a game-day call—sometimes I like to ask an audience what they want to hear, throw out a couple choices—but likely picks include excerpts from my latest published novel This World and the Next with lots of foreshadowing from the Last Day before the end of the world, and scenes from my recently completed book Compassion Fatigue, featuring a burnt-out veterinarian whose son is implicated in an active-shooter incident. Cheery stuff either way, I know, but what can I say, our writing is a product of our times. Or at least mine is.