What does a literary magazine editor look for?

I'm not an expert on the topic but I did serve as a literary magazine's poetry editor for over a year and as co-editor and webmaster for a year for my program (MFA in creative writing bilingual and online program at University of Texas at El Paso). The magazine was called Quicksilver. We have stopped receiving submissions, so before you go to submit here, you should know that our doors are temporarily (?) closed.

As a poetry editor I tended towards contemporary work, packed with good imagery, a nice attention to line breaks and language (not too floral or poetic but scintillating and fresh). The form should match the content and like good fiction should make a leap, almost a disassociative or loose association of ideas that somehow seem organic to the form.

As a co-editor of fiction and non-fiction I gravitated towards the work of writers that presented itself in the opening with a hook, and followed that up with plain and surprising language that didn't stumble back on itself in cliches. A father might piss in milk jugs because he's too lazy to use the bathroom rather than holding his little girl's hand and saying it is 'okay' when she pees her pants. Something unexpected. But really if you want to know what the taste is of an editor the best way to find out is to read some of the past issues. Maybe the editor has a fetish for ubra hipster travel writers, therapeutic jaunts into painful moments, nature enthusiasts or poets who imitate Whitman, Ginsberg, Li-Young Lee, Espada, Rich or Dove.