Below is an interview of Haggard and Halloo editor Travis Catsull. The questions were asked by Elizabeth Bologna from the University of Connecticut for their Art & Literature magazine, Long River Review. This may not answer every question you have, but it may answer one or two while giving you some background on Haggard and Halloo. We’ve also added some other FAQs that may help.
How did your journal begin?
Haggard and Halloo began in Denton, Texas in 1995. Oswald James and I started a poetry zine of our own writing and famous poets work that we enjoyed. We began circulating this unnamed zine on the campus of University of North Texas by handing out 20 copies of each issue. We’d also cut out pictures from old magazines and glue them onto the pages to give it color. We had no plans to do anything serious with it. We just wanted to do a zine.
Who would you consider to be your literary journal contemporaries, or which journals do you admire?
I’ve always enjoyed Minus Times, Effing Magazine, Arthur Magazine and the work Tsunami Inc. used to do. All of those release sporadically, as do I. Most of the journals I admire are no longer around. The typical zine/journal doesn’t make it past the 5th issue, so its hard to admire for long. Zoetrope, Juxtapose and the Baffler are also good journals.
How do you get funding?
I have personally funded the project for 15 years. We receive limited donations from fans and readers. Their donations have contributed roughly $200 over the last 15 years. We make some money from merchandise sales.
How many submissions per year do you receive, on average?
We currently receive 30-50 submissions a week. So around 2,000 submissions a year I suppose. And we post roughly 400 of those.
What is the biggest mistakes writers make when submitting to your magazine?
Writers not taking the time to read our guidelines or our magazine, but still sending something that is not within our style guide. Writers deciding to send 10 poems at once or long 8 page stories. We don’t have the time to read that many poems from each author. I’ve been doing this so long I almost know if I’m going to like it or not 5 lines into your poem. I’ll certainly read the whole thing, but if you send me 10 poems I’m going to read the first poem, mark your entire work accordingly and move on.
What is the best advice you can give to writers wanting to be published in
your magazine?
Don’t rush in or submit blindly. Take the time to familiarize yourself with our writers and what we typically post. Decide if our vehicle is the correct place for you. It never hurts to take a chance and send something in, but if you mostly write sonnets, then realize we are not the place for you. Our guidelines are very clear, in that they are vague.
Where did the name of your magazine come from?
The origin of the name is terribly unromantic. Around issue 3 or 4 I decided our zine needed a name so I randomly opened a dictionary and it fell to the H section. Haggard was a word on one page, Halloo a word on the next. They seemed to juxtapose one another well and sounded easy enough to personify. They even sounded good together, so we just called it Haggard and Halloo. At this time Oswald James had moved on and Shon Toney was helping me run the publication. He moved on as well, but the name has remained.
Extra questions:
A poem I submitted to H and H was accepted by another publication. Do I need to withdraw that poem?
No. Congrats on having it accepted elsewhere though! Due to the # of submissions we receive and that we schedule our posts months in advance we won’t be able to search through and pull your poem either (assuming we’ve decided to accept it). If this is a problem for you, don’t mutli-submit poems.
How do I contact you?
Use the Submit Writing / Contact Page or email us at haggardandhalloo@gmail.com