It's always kind of funny to me how awkward many of us seem to be when we approach an editor we know some but not that closely. I've had poets I know timidly e-mail me a query about whether I want them to submit work (The answer is yes! Send it!), and I've had poets I've met in person and am on a first-name basis with address their letters to Anti- "Dear Editors." In fact, I just did that same thing on a submission to an anthology being edited by two people I know (I bet you can guess the anthology if you're reading this on my blog...) because I wasn't sure if they were the only editors or if they'd be screening everything.

I also had a submission to a journal where I know the editor quite well bounced by a screener because I addressed the editor in a casual manner but wasn't very specific, so the screener thought I didn't really know him and was trying to BS my way onto the editor's desk. I hesitate to send work directly to editors I know unless they specifically suggest it. [Edited to add: by this I mean e-mailing it directly to them in contravention of stated submission guidelines, not addressing the letter to them. This is what I get for not proofreading.]

And whenever I do get specific in a submission letter to an editor I know, I worry about seeming weird or overly forward. No wonder Brandi referred to AWP as "Awkward Writers and Poets"! Aside from Eduardo, who (usually) doesn't send work to journals whose editors he knows, how do you approach it [Edited to add: "it" being addressing an editor you sort of know, not choosing whether to send work where you know an editor]? Doesn't it seem in a way like a fine line to walk? I mean, even without the questions of can you be objective and will it hurt a friendship (of course not / it damn well shouldn't).

Edited to add: obviously I did a shit job writing this in the first place. I'm not really asking "Do you or don't you send work to places where you know the editor," which is frankly a discussion that bores me. I'm saying "Given that most of us do this, don't you find there's a certain amusing awkwardness to that interaction, and what do you do about it?"