Two Butler MFA alums, Zach Roth and Luke Wortley, began Axolotl with the dream of creating “a beautiful, completely bilingual magazine to publish both established and emerging writers that share their love for magical realism and its various iterations.” Butler MFA students who worked with Zach and Luke at Butler’s lit mag, Booth, (both were fiction editors during their time in the program) are not surprised to see these big dreaming, hard working, creative minds realize that dream.
After just one year, the two list these accomplishments on their website:
- We published six (6) online issues
- We compiled and successfully printed a beautiful print issue
- We nominated several pieces for various awards and anthologies
- We took on a third staff member
- Most importantly, we have returned for a second year
Their website and blog are written as well as the most entertaining story and gives the details of their journey. If that’s not enough, they answered questions for their alma mater’s blog, too.
What makes Axolotl different than the stacks of lit mags out there?
Zach: We’re fully bilingual and love to read translations, which allows us to reach unique markets. We don’t keep a blacklist and invite everyone to submit more work. Our website background is Cosmic Latte, the average color of the universe.
Luke: We try so hard to be transparent about the process and we actively look for ways to change and evolve.
Are you surprised by Axolotl’s steady growth and success or did you always know you had a winner?
Zach: I knew we were firmly differentiated and would have a niche, but I would never have anticipated this. I was expecting that after a few months it would die an obscure whisper.
Your website says you are seeking “previously unpublished translations and original works of fiction, drama, poetry, and art—in both English and Spanish—in and about and around the genres of magical realism and slipstream. We want pieces that infinitely absorb us like black holes.” What else makes a great story for Axolotl?
Zach: A good first line, a better first page, and exceptional follow-through.
Luke: I’d add that a good poem to us is one that forces me to reconsider something fundamentally, whether that be the poem itself or the poem’s subject matter. I want stuff that takes risks.
Hey Zach, what gets Luke so excited that his Kentucky accent comes out?
Zach: A hoedown at the hootenanny.
What does Luke bring to the mag?
Zach: I am a hermit crab of a man. Luke brings the charisma, personality, and social media prowess. He also brings a more finely-attuned eye and ear for poetry because he reads all sorts of nonsense about birds and ice cream emperors.
How much do you disagree? Who gets the final say?
Zach: As often as you would expect of two people with different aesthetics and values–a healthy amount. But that’s the fun part. I would argue that Luke technically gets final say because he’s the tougher negotiator.
Luke: I’d say we’re usually pretty in-sync. Part of what makes our process so unique is that we’re a team of editors and readers. So when there’s a disagreement, we’re having it out over whether or not that piece gets published, not whether or not an editor even gets to take a look. So, of course, I voice my opinion in one direction or the other. Then the intellectual beatdown begins. Thankfully, though, I don’t have to worry about Zach’s powerful calves (seriously, though, his calves are those of Adonis) because most of our sparring takes place online.
What are you most proud of in Axolotl?
Zach: Personally, the edits to the story, “Ten Days in the Submerged City.” I didn’t mean for such a comprehensive edit to happen. I gave the author about 40 suggestions, and he took them ALL. And then gave me two new drafts. I also think the story’s design in the print volume is probably the most ambitious and successful.
Luke: For me it’s our longevity. The shelf-life of most literary magazines, especially ones not connected to a university or other writing center, is pretty short and many do not make it to a second cycle of publication (many don’t even finish their first). I’m also proud to have added a third staff member, the hilariously talented Tana Oshima.
Why did you decide to create a print issue?
Zach: Half of it is because digital publishing is liberating but transient. The journal that accepted my first-ever publication no longer exists and thus my first-ever publication credit no longer exists. The print issue serves as a beautiful, permanent record for us and our contributors. The other half of it is that my real passion is design. I firmly believe that a story or poem that hums can be made to sing with the right design. The greatest modern tragedy is an ugly book.
Luke: I knew that Zach would kill it.
How did your work with Booth help with this project?
Zach: Working on Booth gave me a lot of insight into the administrative side of running a lit mag and choosing pieces, but it’s also my personal standard I hope to surpass. For both design and content, it’s a good combination of vision and execution. Looks slick, reads slick. I want someone to feel about Axolotl the way I felt holding Booth 4 for the first time.
Luke: Being both a reader (poetry) and editor (fiction) at Booth gave me relevant experience to navigate the ever-changing literary market, especially as a young magazine. Attending AWP as a Booth representative was also extremely helpful because I made a lot of contacts in the literary world — experiences that have helped us mold our nebulous literary idea into a concrete aggregate of the some of the most beautiful and strange stuff on the web (and in print).
Where are you going from here?
Zach: I hear that hootenanny is still going on.
Luke: To the hoedown.
To get in this hootenanny, check out Axolotl online, consider submitting, or purchase the first issue.