This week, meet the next member of our new editorial staff: Andrew Payton, Poetry Editor

Portrait of Andrew Yawping

What book can you not stop talking to people about?
Poetry: Maurice Manning – A Common Man and A Companion for Owls
Short Story: Anthony Doerr – The Shell Collector
Novel: Ann Pancake – Strange As This Weather Has Been
Nonfiction: Steven Rinella – American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon

What book compels your writing?
Often the last book I read compels my writing, and when I feel stalled and uninspired I might return to something by some of my favorites: Wendell Berry, William Stafford, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Galway Kinnell, Pablo Neruda, Salvatore Quasimodo, Sharon Olds, Louise Gluck, and Yusef Komunyakaa. This list probably keeps going.

What (other than Flyway) literary magazines do you read?
I’ll typically read whatever falls into my hand or strikes my momentary interest. But a few magazines I return to, subscribe to, or prefer: Cave Wall, Appalachian Heritage, Whitefish Review, One Story, Ecotone, The Sun, The Paris Review, and Poetry.

What writers do you seek out in literary magazines?
They may all be super famous already, but these names would definitely pique my interest in a journal: Track K Smith, Bob Hicok, Sandra Beasley, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, D.A. Powell, Maurice Manning, Frank X Walker, Linda Pastan, Natasha Trethewey, or Geoffrey Brock.

What advice do you have for potential-contributors of Flyway?
Read books. Read magazines. Read Flyway! Write and submit and plant trees.