Nicky Bennett, Editor-in-Chief
Nicky Bennett is a writer, poet, and the founding Editor-in-Chief of Not Quite Right—a literary magazine built for work that doesn’t sit comfortably inside expectation. You’ll also hear him sometimes refer to himself as the “Head Queen in Charge.”
He didn’t always know he would end up here.
He grew up with a very specific understanding of what masculinity was supposed to look like. It was rigid. Clearly defined. Reinforced in quiet and obvious ways. There was a right way to be, and a long list of ways not to be—and for a long time, it felt like he was getting it wrong.
Not dramatically wrong. Not in a way that could always be named out loud. Just… not quite right.
Over time, that tension didn’t disappear. It sharpened.
What started as a vague sense of misalignment became something more deliberate—something examined, questioned, slowly pulled apart. The realization, when it came, was both simple and disorienting:
The problem wasn’t him.
It was the definition.
Years later, he considers himself comfortably male—but not tethered to traditional, performative, or inherited ideas of what that is supposed to mean. Masculinity, for him, is no longer a fixed standard to meet, but something more flexible. More personal. Something that can hold softness without apology. Something that doesn’t need to be proven.
That shift didn’t arrive all at once. It came gradually, through writing, through reflection, through the quiet work of paying attention to what felt true and what didn’t.
That process continues.
He identifies as pansexual—though, depending on the context, he may say bisexual for the sake of ease. Not everything needs to be explained in full detail all the time. Not every conversation needs to become a definition.
Sometimes language is a tool. Sometimes it’s a shortcut. Sometimes it’s something you outgrow.
In contrast to the internal work, his external presentation is often read very differently.
He is, by appearance, unmistakably masculine. Broad, grounded, and—within queer spaces—recognizable as what many would call a bear. It’s a label he doesn’t mind. It carries a kind of shorthand, a quiet recognition. But like any label, it only tells part of the story.
There is always more underneath.
As Editor-in-Chief of Not Quite Right, Nicky is drawn to work that reflects that same complexity—the tension between how something appears and how it actually feels. The space between identity and expectation. The places where language begins to strain, and something more honest starts to emerge.
He is less interested in writing that performs certainty than in writing that allows for contradiction. Less interested in neat conclusions than in pieces that linger, shift, and remain open.
The kind of work that doesn’t quite resolve.
The kind of work that feels, in some way, like it had to be written.
Not Quite Right exists, in part, because he spent years trying to become something that made more sense on the surface.
This magazine is for the work—and the people—that no longer feel the need to.
If you need to, you can reach Nicky at nicky@notquiterightmag.com