Ten Years with Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief Elena Lucia Perez
The Metaworker is ten years old, so to celebrate I decided to look back at our roots and speak with our current staff. The Metaworker has seen many changes over the past decade, and the person who has been here through every single one feels like the perfect place to start.
When I first joined, Elena was the organizational mastermind and website manager. She kept all of us on track, never let tasks fall through the cracks, and worked hard to design and update the site. I stood (and still stand) in awe of her ability to juggle the many moving parts of a literary magazine, all while treating everyone with patience and understanding. Her willingness to sit down with me and explain my role as the new (and first) intern made a huge difference. Elena’s warmth is one of the biggest reasons I wanted to stay after my internship ended.
As Editor-in-Chief, Elena continues to carry many of her early responsibilities such as reading submissions, replying to authors, maintaining the website, and uploading posts. With her position comes new duties, so we add to that list: training new slush readers, working with interns, scheduling meetings and social media posts, submitting to the Pushcart Prize, producing and editing podcast episodes, and so many more small jobs that most don’t notice unless they are left undone.
The question of How did The Metaworker get started comes up often. I’ve heard Elena answer it on two different panels — once with the Morgantown Writers Group and once with SpecFicNZ, the national association for creators, writers, and editors of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in or from Aotearoa New Zealand. Each time, a faraway look crosses her face as she travels back to those early days, and her voice lifts with that spark of remembered excitement.
When I posed the same question to her in writing for this profile, she answered with the same warmth:
“I’d been looking for a way to stay involved in publishing after I graduated from Chapman University, but I’d gotten rejected from the places I applied to. Then I heard about a group of fellow graduates who were interested in starting their own magazine. I’d been thinking about it too — I already had experience running others and thought it couldn’t be that hard (lol). So I sort of tagged along, not really knowing anyone except Nicole.”
She continued, “But we all worked really well together and had different strengths, so it all worked out and grew from there.” She noted that before Matthew left to pursue his own writing, the team recorded a podcast about their origin story. You can hear that conversation—and the same warmth in Elena’s voice—in The Metaworker Podcast | 011 Ink Runs in Our Veins. It’s an invitation to travel back to those early days with her, and I urge you to go listen for yourself.
Elena is quick to admit the early days weren’t all sunshine and rainbows. “When we first started, we didn’t have a lot of pieces to publish, so we had to get creative to fill every Monday slot. That meant publishing some of our own writing, running interviews with indie publishers and authors, and even taking a short hiatus while we waited for submissions to come in.”
Her enthusiasm has never wavered. She has now read thousands of submissions, so I asked what makes one stop her in her tracks. She loves a mystery, not necessarily a whodunit, but anything puzzling, curious, or delightfully contrasting.
“That could be introducing me to a new world or a new perspective,” she wrote, “or perhaps it’s a different way of writing or playing with form. Something that doesn’t reveal itself right away that encourages me to think and put the pieces together on my own.”
I asked for three ingredients that can’t be substituted in a successful submission. Her recipe: a strong opening, a unique voice, and a strong ending.
“I want to be grabbed by the perspective,” she wrote. “Then I’ll pay attention to the structure: is the writer using literary devices? Is there a character arc or real exploration? Finally, I look for emotional truth: does this story feel authentic for the character? Does the writing convey the author’s passion?”
When I asked if any particular story or poem has stayed with her after all these years, she replied, “Oh gosh, that’s like asking me to pick a favorite child. I genuinely love them all. I’ve read every single piece we’ve published, and there’s something about each one that draws me in. Even the ones from 2015 — I see the title and the accompanying art and instantly remember why I loved it.
“What makes a piece linger is its deep, undeniable truth mixed with both sadness and indescribable joy in different measures. Which is perhaps why any of us love stories. I know I’m being vague, so I’ll just say this: I love joyful stories that still acknowledge the darkness within us all.”
Crafting the perfect submission can feel overwhelming with so many competing rules out in the publishing world. Elena is quick to remind writers that the whole process is subjective — editors are imperfect humans too. Still, a few common pitfalls can hurt a piece’s chances. She broke them down by category:
- Prose: Ending the story right when the interesting conflict is about to happen. Writers often build atmosphere, characters, and tension beautifully, then stop just as things get exciting. I love a good cliffhanger, but an abrupt ending leaves the story feeling unfinished. I want to see the characters face the conflict on the page.
- Poetry: Inconsistent form or being too conservative with it. Play with the white space! Position the words on the page intentionally. And if you’re going to experiment, go all in, and commit to it from beginning to end. The form should serve the topic.
- Micros: Pieces that read like the setup to a punchline.
One thing that stands out most about Elena’s editing is the care she puts into choosing what to publish. “This feels like the most important part,” she shared, “because I think this is where many writers fall through the cracks.”
Editors are often swamped, so they take shortcuts or lean on marketability. Elena reads with a deliberately positive lens instead. “I take the most time here to understand where the writer is coming from and what they’re trying to convey. Many voices that aren’t perfectly buttoned-up still deserve an audience.”
That empathy comes from an honest place. She’s a writer and maker herself.
Elena loves to sew and embroider. Her hand-sewn felt ornaments are adorable, and she enjoys creating all kinds of shapes and designs. She’s even made a few cosplay outfits: Starfire, The Flash, and a TARDIS dress.
When it comes to writing, she’s a proud pantser. “I have so many story ideas, and I love imagining new worlds. The fun is deciding what my world will look like. I usually have an idea for the start, but no idea where it will go, so I just make it up as I go and trust my subconscious to bring the pieces together.”
She also loves plants (we bonded over this). All of hers have different personalities, but she has a special soft spot for her rubber tree. “My grama had a huge one in her backyard when I was growing up. I bought mine when it was only four inches tall, and now it’s about three feet! Just looking at it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.”
Her workspace has the quintessential creative chaos: her desk in her apartment is covered in colorful convention art, books, papers, craft supplies, hard drives, and random objects. She only uses the desk about half the time, though. “The other half I’m on the couch with my laptop or working from my phone on breaks from my day job or when I’m out and about. It doesn’t sound like great work-life balance, but since The Metaworker and my writing don’t feel like ‘work,’ I don’t mind fitting them in wherever they fit.”
One of the hardest decisions for any creative is knowing when a piece is done. Elena’s approach:
“Sometimes asking a friend or a writing group to read my piece helps me decide if it’s finished or needs work. Sometimes I go by vibes to decide when a piece is done. However, it never fails that when enough time passes and I look at a piece again in the future, I discover things that I want to tweak. In my mind, no piece is ever truly ‘finished’, it’s just that I decide at some point to stop working on it and I’m happy enough with its current state. It’s a balance, and I’ve learned that sometimes striving for perfection can prevent the story from ever seeing the light of day.”
Elena has been the steady heartbeat of The Metaworker for all ten of its years. Through the lean early issues, the hiatuses, the thousands of submissions, and every Monday afternoon when a new story went live, she’s been here working behind the scenes. She is the reason so many of us stayed, and why so many more will find their way here.
We’re a growing magazine. What started as four editors doing everything on their own, has grown into a fantastic team of slush readers, interns, an assistant editor, and a submissions manager. The editors–Elena, Cerid, and myself–are beyond grateful for everything our team does! We are privileged to have such a dedicated group of people working with us, donating their free time to read submissions or to help shoulder some of the extra work. In the coming years, we hope to give back as much as possible, welcome newcomers, and continue to build a stellar community where kindness is our touchstone.
As we celebrate this milestone, I keep thinking about that first meeting when she sat down with me, a nervous intern, and made the whole daunting world of literary magazines feel like a place I could belong. That same patience, curiosity, and genuine care still radiates from every corner of the site she built.
So if you’re reading this and you’ve been hesitating to submit or if you’re simply looking for a place that will read your work with kindness and attention, know that Elena is waiting, ready to be surprised by the next story that makes her sit up and pay attention.
The Metaworker is ten years old, but because of her, it still feels brand new every single Monday.
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