Ask the Editor: Jessa Marsh, Web Editor of Monkeybicycle

Jessa Marsh’s name is being mentioned in lots of places these days. She’s the new web editor for Monkeybicycle and an assistant editor at Storyglossia. She’s also recently published stories at decomP, Monkeybicycle and Storyglossia. Today she talks with us about tattoos, art modeling, and Scrubs, or the best show ever made.

1. Why is Chicago such a great city for writers? Why do you love Chicago?

There are about fifty million reading series in the city. Also I attend Columbia, which is apparently the largest writing program in the country, so I’m constantly interacting with other writers. This spring I bought Lydia Millet drinks, Joey Comeau signed my copy of his book, and I heard Richard Price speak. I don’t see that happening if I remained in East Lansing.

Behold the power of Facebook. Both opportunities emerged from Facebook. I set my status to “Jessa Marsh would like to be your unpaid, overworked reader” and almost instantly I was talking to Steven McDermott about Storylglossia. And even more recently Steven Seighman posted a Facebook note about needing a web editor for Monkeybicycle.

Reading submissions is awesome. I read so many things I never would have before, amazing things and awful things. And I really think it’ll be helpful to me as a writer. I’ve always had professors suggest working as a reader at some point to see what editors want, but I never realized how right they were. I read submissions and see weakness that my writing has as well and it makes me realize I need to do better. It’s fantastic.

T-minus 50 third-person period pieces.

My go-to joke is that Columbia is like a SNL skit that lasts for four years. I mean, we have word games and we sit in a semi-circle and a lot of the time classes feel like a group therapy. But I’m so happy I go here. When I was looking for a college to go to, this was the only one close to Michigan that really seemed to focus on writing instead of years of English classes plus one or two writing classes. I’ve been here two years, undergrad, and I’ve improved so much in that time. Plus, as I said, just being located in Chicago is fantastic. It’s a creative community I can’t imagine finding anywhere else in the Midwest.

In chronological order- A Smashing Pumpkins heart on my hip (I was 18!); a pair of pink headphones on my ribs; a giant Douglas Coupland quote on my back (he’s my favorite and a galley of his newest novel is due in my mailbox at any moment); a sunflower under my collarbone in memory of my grandmother; and a Morriessey song title (Do Your Best And Don’t Worry) on my lower back- the anti-tramp stamp.

I hope I’ll be dead in 97 years, but I-m sure I’ll find some embarrassing. I’m already embarrassed of the SP hear. At Columbia I met several people with literary tattoos (I remember both Ray Bradbury and Joyce Carol Oates quotes off the top of my head). I figure we are just like any arty kids, but with a specific focus on text.

I pose for photographers, painters, and sculptors. Usually buck naked. It’s mainly about having a heightened awareness of your physicality and a complete lack of shame about your body. I pose for stuff that has landed on gallery walls and in magazines. It’s never been about being pretty or in shape as much as its been about being fearless.

Stuff I’d want to read. I like honesty and humor. I definitely want language that is unexpected and tightly crafted. I want to be surprised.

Primary? Failing to hold my interest. There are various pet peeves, of course. I hate party stories. It might be particular to Columbia students, but the first two years here it seems like no one is writing anything but party stories. I also hate stories about writers. There are exceptions though. I recently begged Steven McDermott to publish a story about a writer. That one will appear in Storyglossia 35 and it’s fantastic.

I should exclude Storyglossia and Monkeybicycle as well. I’ll have to be obvious and say I’m a huge McSweeney’s fan.

No doubt about it. A. With a word limit of 1500, you know we like it short and sweet. Please believe that Monkeybicycle would be an aggressive but tender lover. You’ll never forget us. You’ll compare your future partners to us. They’ll never live up to it and you’ll always feel a longing, an emptiness, a Monkeybicycle shaped hole in your heart.

Turk and J.D. are deeply entrenched in Guy Love (that’s love between two guys), but it’s one hundred percent platonic. Neither of them would hit it, no matter how much the slash writers would love that. And Elliot is just so genuine. I relate to her because she is this neurotic overachieving mess, but she’s never fake (until season six) and I enjoy that. Her character is as flawed as any human being and flawed in ways that I am too. Is she too obsessed with being the best? Yup. Is she overly anxious to be in a committed relationship? Yup. Is she genuinely plagued with doubts that she could ever be either of those things? Hell yes. I think fiction writers should learn from this. Contradictions are important and enriching. You don’t need eight seasons (so far) to achieve it.

I’m trying my best to distract Casey Bye, both editor of Knee-Jerk Magazine and my boyfriend.

Well, it’s a short story collection in theory about substandard relationships and loneliness. The idea is that each story will be accompanied by a photo. All the photos are of couples sleeping in bed. So the shot has the same framing, lighting, everything as every other shot. But the couple and the sleeping position is different, reflecting the dynamics of the relationship of the story. I started the year seventy-five pages in, but I’ve out-grown most of the writing. Now I’m at about twenty-five pages. The end gets further and further away. It’s the kind of idea you get when you are twenty.

Real World, hands down. I had dreams about that all through middle school. Oh god, the New Orleans season. Remember that? With Julie, the Mormon Jewel wannabe? That was a fanatic year. I should add that I lived in New Orleans until I was seven and that was my favorite season. I also stopped watching during the Chicago season. Probably not a coincidence, but I’ll pretend it is.
15. What question should I have asked?

What my all time favorite TV couple is. Joey and Pacey, no doubt about it. (ed. excellent choice! Dawson’s Creek 4eva!)

Or, what is your favorite Scrubs episode. My Bed Banter And Beyond. There is a Dr. Cox’s speech I think about each time I have a relationship issue:

“through all this stuff I have not become a cynic. I haven’t. Yes, I do happen to believe that love is mainly about pushing chocolate-covered candies and, y’know, in some cultures, a chicken. You can call me a sucker, I don’t care, because I do… believe in it. Bottom line: it’s couples who are truly right for each other wade through the same crap as everybody else, but the big difference is they don’t let it take them down. One of those two people will stand up and fight for that relationship every time. If it’s right, and they’re real lucky, one of them will say something.”