Featured Q&A with E.F. Schraeder

Recently, author E.F. Schraeder (whose work was featured on Wintermute) has kindly given insight into the adult writing world through a Q&A.

About E.F. Schraeder:

An admirer of strange wonders, sleights of hand, and carousels, E.F. Schraeder writes poetry and fiction often inspired by not quite real worlds. The author of Ghastly Tales of Gaiety and Greed (Omnium Gatherum, 2020), Schraeder also authored two poetry chapbooks. Recent work has appeared in Birthing Monsters, Terror Politico, Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Mystery Weekly Magazine, Subliminal Realities, The Feminist Wire, and other journals and anthologies. Schraeder’s nonfiction has appeared in Radical Teacher, the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom blog, and elsewhere. Schraeder studied applied ethics and humanities in graduate school and holds an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Social Philosophy. Current creative projects include a monster’s coming of age novella and a full length manuscript of poems.



Q: Could you give us insight into any common traps or unethical practices in the publishing industry for aspiring writers to avoid?

A: My guideline is to send work to places that I like to read. In terms of getting started, it’s also helpful to look into publishers’ practices before submission—review past publications, read terms of publication in the contracts you receive, and always keep an eye on re-print options and author’s rights.



Q: Which of your favorite authors or works (books, poems, short stories, etc) do you think are under-appreciated in the spec-fic world?

A: Favorites are impossible without oodles of categories! That said, I’ve been prepping for a dystopian book club, so one unsung literary treasure I’ve enjoyed re-reading is Karin Boye’s classic Kallocain. It’s a work (and author) I have enjoyed revisiting with a new lens, thinking about some of the social issues of her time and how they resonate today.



Q: Which spec-fic publications do you read regularly?

A: I try to subscribe to at least one print magazine a year and read several online regularly. Black Static and Dark Moon Digest are fantastic, and online I try to keep up with several. A very including, but not limited to list would be Strange Horizons, Eye to the Telescope, Pedestal, The Sirens Call, Pseudopod (podcast), and Daily Science Fiction. 



Q: Lastly, are there any pieces of advice you would tell your younger writing self?

A: Don’t take a break—ever. Just keep writing. I’m extremely shy, so I may encourage a younger self to try to stay in better touch with the other writers they meet along the way, too.