The Crime Lady: Changing Guards
A Q&A with Jackie Sherbow, the newest editor-in-chief of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
Dear TCL Readers:
Like J. Kingston Pierce, editor of The Rap Sheet, I was late to the news that after more than 33 years as editor-in-chief of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Janet Hutchings has retired, and Jackie Sherbow, longtime senior managing editor of both EQMM and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, succeeded her as EIC last November. The January/February 2025 issue was Hutchings’ last, and EQMM’s 1000th — a fitting number to end a storied career that nurtured so many writers, including me.
In the summer of 2005, after publishing a few short stories in online magazines, I set out to write something worthy of being published in EQMM. The stories I’d written before then were for noir and hardboiled outlets that no longer exist like Plots with Guns and Hardluck Stories and which helped me figure out what my voice was rather than what I thought it should be. By summer’s end, I’d written and submitted “Boy Inside the Man”, which Hutchings graciously accepted and published in the May 2007 issue.
After that, EQMM always became my first port of call whenever I was moved to write a mystery story. I treasured the acceptances, of course — I published three other stories, “Cog in the Wheel” (December 2012), “The Last Cut” (June 2015) and “Dream Wedding” (December 2016) - but the rejections meant even more. Because Hutchings had a real knack for identifying story structure problems in the most succinct way possible. If it didn’t work for her, I knew it wouldn’t work for anybody. If she had a specific nitpick, then I could submit the story elsewhere — most often Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, as I did with two stories.
EQMM wasn’t just essential to my growth as a writer, but also as an editor. Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives, my first anthology, could not have existed without the time spent sifting through back issues of the magazine, including one afternoon at the late, great mystery bookstore Partners & Crime after someone had dropped off a partial run of the magazine from the 1940s through the 1970s.
As I wrote in 2013, “quality isn’t just about whom you publish from the get-go. It’s about years of archives, issue after issue of publishing the best in the field, and—when you aren’t looking—helping to define a lost generation of writers.” Hutchings (and now, Sherbow) aren’t just editing contemporary crime writers, but they have been stewards of the genre’s rich and illustrious past, which was a lifesaver on more than one occasion when I had to clear permissions that were difficult to come by.
In more than three decades at the magazine’s helm, Hutchings saw tremendous transformations in publishing — it wasn’t a digital business in 1991, and it’s almost entirely digital now — while keeping the focus on quality from writers old and new (thank god for Department of First Stories!) EQMM has outlasted countless magazines, and promoting Sherbow to EIC gives it a great shot to continue its core mission, as does the sale, along with sibling publications AHMM, Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF, to the new consortium Must Read Magazines.
Jackie Sherbow is only the fourth editor-in-chief in EQMM’s history, after Hutchings (1991-2024), Eleanor Sullivan (1982-1991) and founder Fred Dannay (1941-1982), and the first to take over the position after the predecessor’s retirement. Sherbow also grew up, professionally, at Dell Magazines; she was an assistant when I started publishing stories, and it’s been a real pleasure to watch her rise up in the ranks. I wanted to know her vision for EQMM going forward, beginning with the March/April 2025 issue, and sent her some questions over email.
The ensuing conversation is edited for clarity:
The Crime Lady: Congratulations on being named editor-in-chief of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine! First off, I wonder how you are feeling. It's a huge and deserved step for you!
Jackie Sherbow: Thank you, Sarah! I’m feeling honored, humbled, thrilled — and ready for it.
TCL: I also know there have also been some big changes to the ownership of EQMM and its sibling magazines. What additional details can you share about the ownership change and how it affects EQMM in particular?
JS: The magazines have been sold to Must Read Magazines, a division of 1 Paragraph, Inc., a start-up publishing group. Like any change, the acquisition comes with challenges and opportunities, and while folks may have noticed some delays on our end with administrative things, I’m confident that the new resources and energy will help EQMM thrive—especially in the marketing and digital realms.
TCL: What, if anything, about your role with Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine has changed? Will you still be working on this magazine?
JS: I’m no longer working on AHMM directly, although from time to time Linda Landrigan, AHMM’s editor, and I have been collaborating to get some extra eyes on things—and I have been working with the magazines’ associate editor, Kevin Wheeler, to train him in all things AHMM. With Janet’s retirement, my transition, and the sale of the magazines all happening around the same time, the former Penny/Dell employees are feeling in it together, and we are making sure to help each other get everything done.
TCL: Janet Hutchings has some very big shoes to fill (as did her predecessors, Eleanor Sullivan and Fred Dannay.) What do you see as your own personal vision for the magazine, both in terms of its long legacy and its future?
JS: I’m incredibly lucky to have worked so closely with Janet for so many years, and to benefit from her mentorship and friendship still. She always instilled the importance of following the original principles of EQMM: a magazine that features all types of crime and mystery fiction, with quality as the main standard.
My personal vision includes these original tenets, but I also focus a lot on Fred Dannay’s description of the magazine’s first issue as “frankly experimental”; as writers’ and readers’ needs change, I hope to keep EQMM’s quality consistent while making choices that will be interesting within our cultural landscape. As only the fourth editor of EQMM since 1941, I see myself as the magazine’s current steward, and hopefully there will be many more after myself.
TCL: Magazine publishing is obviously in a precarious state, but EQMM (and AHMM) have outlasted a lot of upstarts over the decades. What are the challenges you know you will face as EIC and how do you expect to meet them?
JS: Working in magazine publishing, or print publishing in general, one’s career is always underlined by the idea of the impermanency of the industry. All these years, though, of folks asking “how long will it last?” and here we still are. So, I try to keep my principles clear and move from there. I hesitate to say what the specific challenges will be—because what I know is that the biggest ones are going to be something I can’t predict right now.
TCL: Finally, I'd love for you to shout-out the current team you are working with, and what each of them are bringing to the EQMM table.
JS: Coming from Penny/Dell with us is Kevin Wheeler, associate editor to all of magazines. Kevin’s been asked to take on a lot with this transition and he’s been a great help to me and to Linda at AHMM, since there isn’t anyone in my own former position right now. Must Reads brought us Franco Alvarado, who handles design and production, and I think readers will enjoy the look of the art he’s been putting together with us.
Thanks so much, Sarah! I hope this gives your readers an insight into the goings-on at EQMM during these multiple transitions, and I can’t wait to hear what people think about the issues.
TCL: Very much likewise, and thank you for taking the time!
Here’s to continued long life for a magazine that means so much to the crime & mystery community.
Until next time, I remain,
The Crime Lady