Craft Talk With Kristen Mulrooney, Creative Nonfiction and Fiction Editorial Assistant

Welcome to Craft Talks. In this bi-monthly post, we’ll have a mini-interview with our own editors about craft, what they look for in submissions, and all things writing.

Today, I talked with Kristen Mulrooney, Creative Nonfiction and Fiction Editorial Assistant. She told me about Mary Oliver and the delight of reading unexpected submissions.

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1. Tell us about yourself and your position at Literary Mama.

I have an MA in Writing and Literature. I used to teach English and writing at the high school and college levels, but now I’m home raising my kids and writing whenever I get the chance. My humor and satire has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Weekly Humorist, and The Belladonna, among others. This year I joined Literary Mama as the Editorial Assistant for the Fiction and Creative Nonfiction departments. 

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2. Is there a passage, sentence, or line of a poem that you absolutely adore? Why is it so good?

The end of Mary Oliver’s “In Blackwater Woods” has been my favorite line of anything since I first read it fifteen years ago. 

The words are simple and accessible, but the way she puts them together is so elegant. I love the gravity of the first two requirements versus the breezy “let it go” at the end. It’s such a powerful way to end a poem.  

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3. What do you look for in submissions? What type of writing grabs your attention? 

It’s always fun to see something presented in an unexpected way. As a recent example, Becky Tuch’s “The Making of Guernica: Artist Notes from Pablo Picasso, Stay-at-Home Dad” in our latest issue was a delightful surprise. She tells a story of Pablo Picasso trying to paint Guernica while raising his kids and it’s such a unique way to present the trials of being a working or creative parent/mother. I love to read something and think, “wow, I never in my life would have thought of this.”

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Read something you liked? Let us know in the comments!