'Meet the Editors: Part 2'

Tina Parsons

What do you look for in a submission?

I am always searching for a depth of feeling that reveals it has been written from the heart. Whatever the emotion, I want to feel it, be challenged by it and for it to stay with me. Exceptional submissions are those that beg to be reread and in which I can make further discoveries with each new reading.

What makes a great story/poem?

For me it has to be the elusive quality that comes from an original blend of technique and creativity – the place where skill and art meet. I want to experience the attention to detail that brings truth and meaning to the seemingly insignificant and mundane.

Who is your favourite author/poet and why?

Where do I start? I am fickle in my favourites, chopping and changing like the weather, frequently falling in love before moving on to the next. I guess my first love was Frances Hodgson Burnet’s The Secret Garden which filled my imagination and fuelled my desire for more. I’m the same with poetry. I recently came across an old booklet of Longfellow’s poems that had accompanied a soldier through the last years of WW1. The soldier’s pencilled side-notes reminded me how important it is to connect with the written word.

What do you do when you’re not MONO-ing?

Together with my husband and daughter, I run a hair and beauty salon and training school. My primary role is training the next generation of beauty and holistic therapists, and as part of this I have had a number of books published. In addition to writing, I create multi-medium art which helps me focus my mind when working on a story or poem. Books fill the gaps in my time and at the moment I am swapping between the new Esther Freud novel I Couldn’t Love You More, Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers and The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe.

What can readers expect from the first issue of MONO?

We are excited for the first edition of MONO to showcase writers within a beautiful aesthetic reflective of their words. Expect stark simplicity with a scintillating darkness. Our hope is for readers to find much within its style and format that resonates with them.