Author/Magazine Editor Interview ~ Kurt Rheinheimer

Kurt Rheinheimer did graduate work in English at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. His stories have appeared in numerous journals, including Michigan Quarterly Review, Shenadoah, Glimmer Train, the South Carolina Review, and Quarterly West. He lives in Roanoke, Virginia, where he is Sr. Editor for Blue Ridge Country and The Roanoker magazines. His short story compilation, Little Criminals, won The Spokane Prize.


~Tell us about your short story compilation book, Little Criminals.

The stories were written and published—mostly in literary journals—over a period of almost 30 years. They seemed like the best of the 60 or so of their type that I’ve written.

You won the Spokane for short fiction. Tell us more about that—who issues that award and how one gets nominated and selected.

The Spokane Prize is awarded by Eastern Washington University, in an annual competition for short story collections. There is a monetary award and the other part of the prize is publication of the collection.

Do you think you’ll have a novel published one day or are you more comfortable in the short story arena?

I don’t think I’ll write a novel. I’ve been writing short stories for more than 30 years and that form is what I enjoy. There are two other collections—one of stories similar to those in Little Criminals and the other based on family experiences—that I continue to submit for publication, as yet to no avail.

Besides being a writer, you're also an editor. How did you get into that field?

My education was in English and communication arts, and then, after a master’s degree, I worked for 15 years or so in the social services field. In the meantime, I wrote stories and freelance material, including a silly column in The Roanoker magazine, called The Star City Seer. It was from that experience that I was hired as the magazine’s editor, in 1984.

What is most rewarding about your job as an editor?

Bringing to fruition a magazine that is full of good stuff to read.

The most challenging?

Finding good writers, especially those who’ll dig and investigate and invest the time needed to do great work.

How would a person go about breaking into the field of magazine editing?

Read read read all the magazines you can; come to understand what they do and why; write write write for magazines until you become indispensable.

How would you suggest a writer breaking in to your magazine?

The Roanoker: Great investigative or topical ideas and the willingness to pursue them.

Blue Ridge Country: Great, compelling contemporary (‘40s-‘70s) history pieces.

Do you still experience self-doubts regarding your work?

Every story is a new start and none is guaranteed to work; many languish or go nowhere. So yes, there is plenty of self-doubt.

What mistakes have you made while seeking publication?

I hope not many. I try to learn the markets I submit to—that’s important, I think.

What’s the best advice you’ve heard on writing/publication?

When your rejected piece comes back, get out a new set of envelopes—one to send it and one SASE—and send it out again.

What’s something you wish you’d known earlier that might have saved you some time/frustration in the publishing business?

Well, I once had a story accepted at Redbook—they said they got 30,000 pieces of fiction in the slush pile per year and took one of them; I then wasted a year of writing trying to write to the market. Write what you know and think and worry about where it’s published after it’s finished.

Is there a particularly difficult set back that you’ve gone through in your writing career you are willing to share?

See immediately above. Also, in many ways, it is one long difficult setback. Getting stories published is hard, and when they are, hardly anyone reads them. Collection publishing is even harder, and the same thing happens.

What are a few of your favorite books? (Not written by you.)

The Flannery O’Connor short stories
The first collection by Joyce Carol Oates “By The North Gate,” I think.
The Raymond Carver stories
Any story by John Updike
“Like Life,” a collection by Lorrie Moore.

What piece of writing have you done that you’re particularly proud of and why?

There’s a piece—non-fiction—due out in an anthology next spring (’07) called “The Bad Case: A 50th Birthday Love Letter,” which chronicles my love of an on-the-fringe interaction with the Baltimore Orioles. I’m proud of it because I have long counted myself the best fan the team has, and taking on this piece gave me the chance to prove it to myself and anybody who might read it.

Do you have a pet peeve having to do with this biz?

Read the magazine before you approach it about material.

Can you give us a view into a typical day of your writing and editing life?

Get up, run or otherwise sweat, go to work, read the paper at lunch, come home 5ish, eat, work in home office at least a half hour and hopefully longer, pick up the guitar, watch a few innings of the Orioles.

If you could choose to have one strength of another writer, what would it be and from whom?

From John Updike, the ability to write like the poet he is no matter what he’s writing.

Do you have a dream for the future of your writing, something you would love to accomplish?

To have the boy-eyed story collection published.

Was there ever a time in your writing career you thought of quitting?

There’s never been that thought per-se; there have been times when I got much less done than others. It was more neglecting than quitting.

How much marketing have you done for your book? Any advice in this area?

Very little: A couple of readings and a bookstore or two. I guess the advice is the same as about most things: You get out of it what you put into it.

Parting words?

Only the axiom from my grandfather: Take two and hit to right. Which translates, in life, I reckon, to something like, take your time, think about it, and do the best you can with what’s before you.




Book Description:

"The characters in Kurt Rheinheimer's first collection are players in the late innings of a tied ball game between hope and the limitations imposed by their histories, obsessions, affections, loyalties, and unspoken regrets. More real than the residents of Masters' Spoon River, more familiar than the denizens of Winesburg, Rheinheimer's people, young and old, look straight at us, as though waiting for us to remember that we are not alone in our struggle to understand and to become whole. Though the stories have the weight and reach we expect from serious fictioin, they also frequently tiptoe on the margins of hilarity. And the washed up ball players, hubcap collectors, minor league umpires, mobile home salesmen, and all the others we meet on our way through small town America also serve out generous helpings of charm."

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