Joey Franklin, Fourth Genre

Joey Franklin is an associate professor of English at Brigham Young University and co-editor of the literary magazine Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction.

What are your responsibilities at Fourth Genre?

A big part of my job is to work with Patrick Madden and other editorial staff to review submissions. In addition to that, as a committee of staff members, we look for and select cover art, we work with a book review editor as she solicits book reviews. As co-editors, we take turns being in charge. So this year, I’m in charge, and I write the editorial note that will go at the beginning of the issue that’s coming out next month, and then I’ll write the one for the fall as well. It’s authored by both of us, but I take the lead on that. So, communicating with authors, accepting and rejecting pieces, coordinating cover art, coordinating the editorial note.

You are an accomplished author and essayist. What made you turn to the editing side? Does that come from teaching?

I like to see what writers are doing. A lot of it isn’t very good, but it’s a lot of fun to come across something brand new and just have your feet knocked out from under you by really amazing writing. Professionally, it’s good to be a part of the community and to help shape what’s getting published and what the conversation is in nonfiction. I also like the opportunity to provide professional opportunities for my students — I’m first and foremost a teacher — at a nationally distributed, 20-year-old magazine that I can hire my students to work at and they can get some publishing and editing experience. To me, the best work I can do is work that helps me professionally but also gives an opportunity for my students to grow and learn some things as well.

How has your time as an editor affected the way you view and practice your own writing?

Seeing writers experiment, try different things and put on different voices is incredibly helpful to me as a writer because it helps me stay fresh. It helps me think about new ways of approaching different subjects. I definitely find myself getting into a rut formally. If I write one braided essay, I end up writing five braided essays before I realize, ‘Hey, I’ve got to find something different to do.’ It’s easy to get stuck in something that feels comfortable. Reading cutting-edge work by writers from all over the country and the world, frankly, that diversity of voices is an excellent way to remind me of the possibilities that are available to writers and not simply lean on the things that come easy to me.

Do you find that as a writer you have a harder time editing essays that are so similar to what you do?

I’d say actually that it’s harder to edit things that are different than what I do. Aesthetically, we all have our own biases and favorites. We have our go-to moves, and we have our types of essays, stories or poems that we tend toward. If someone writes something that’s just totally different than my own aesthetic, one of my jobs as an editor is to make sure that I’m saying, ‘We’re going to say no to this because it’s not ready, not because it’s simply not my thing.’ I want to make sure that we’re publishing essays that aren’t my thing. Just because it’s my thing isn’t what makes it literature.

The Fourth Genre website has a list of adjectives to describe what you’re looking for in submissions: ‘lyrical, self-interrogative, meditative and reflective, as well as expository, analytical, exploratory or whimsical.’ Since that covers a broad range of essays, what really sticks out in that group of 700 or so submissions you receive each year?

I remember sitting in grad school in a cubicle with another grad student. We were grading. I think we were both teaching introduction to creative writing, and my officemate leaned over to me and he said, ‘I just want to write at the top of this page, “Think more interesting thoughts.”’ And I think anyone who’s taught creative writing for a while recognizes that on any topic, grandma’s Alzheimer’s, or mom’s cancer, or a big breakup in high school or whatever the subject is, there are some points that anybody who writes about that are going to be made. Whether the subject matter is new or old, we’re looking for writers who are offering a novel way to think about that subject matter. If, on any subject matter, the first five thoughts from anybody who’s got some critical thinking skills are going to be the same, we want those next five thoughts.

Fourth Genre accepts submissions from Aug. 30 to Nov. 30. More information can be found at the journal’s website.

— Raegan Davies '21