Sapling: What should people know who may not be familiar with Cacti Fur? 

JT: We have an aesthetic and you do too. Sometimes ours match and it’s cool.

Sapling: How did your name come about?

JT: We are in Southern New Mexico where there is lots and lots of cactus. However, we are pretty chill and we like soft things too. For example, I used to carry around a small piece of green fleece in my pocket. I’d rub it when I needed a bolt of comfort.

Sapling: What do you pay close attention to when reading submissions? Any deal breakers?

JT: We don’t like typos. This just isn’t a classy move to send a poem that has not been proofed by the author. We don’t like bird poems. Too many poets settle on bird poems and that’s lame. We don’t care where they take it. Don’t start with a bird, or end with a bird. We guess shooting someone a bird is still cool for a poem. Your poem will instantly be rejected if you use the word “unfurl”. Like I said before, we have an aesthetic and so do you. It’s cool, a miracle really, when they come together.

Sapling: Where do you imagine Cacti Fur to be headed over the next couple years? What’s on the horizon?

JT: Hopefully not out of business like so many other online poetry journals.

Sapling: As an editor, what is the hardest part of your job? The best part?

JT: We like adding poetry to the internet. That feels good. We like sending emails that say, “your poem has been accepted for publication” because that might make a poet feel good for a second. We also like featuring the photography of poet Tim Staley in every post.

Sapling: If you were stranded on a desert island for a week with only three books which books would you want to have with you?

JT: The Fool’s Progress by Edward Abbey

Nice Hat, Thanks by Joshua Beckman & Matthew Rohrer

Acid & Menudo by Johnny Huerta

Sapling: Just for fun (because we like fun and the number three) if Cacti Fur was a person what three things would it be thinking about obsessively?

JT: the numbers 4, 1, and 9

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