Editor Interview: The Missouri Review

Good work that surprises

There are so many! Off the top of our head: Ploughshares, the Common, Tin House, Cincinnati Review, New England Review, Southern Review, Kenyon Review, A Public Space, Post Road, Seattle Review, Ninth Letter, Mid-American Review, New South, Crab Orchard Review, Quarterly West, The Journal, and too many others to name them all.

Our most recent issue is always our favorite.

We seek out the very best in contemporary literature in all three genres. Writing originally published in The Missouri Review has been reprinted in anthologies like the Best American series, The Pushcart Prize, and The Prize Stories, to name a few, over one hundred times. We also frequently publish first work by emerging writers. We have a reputation for being careful and considerate editors and working closely with each writer on the edits of her/his manuscript. The work we publish is engaging, memorable, and always entertaining.

Be patient and use your intuition. Send us a piece that feels like a good fit. If we don't take it but ask to see more, we mean it.

We like to be surprised and engaged by what we read. Control of craft and originality of voice and material matter a lot.

We've always been pretty transparent about our editorial process, and our Submission Guidelines are available online and it seems (for the most part) the majority of writers follow those guidelines. If anything, what is most frequently wrong is that the work isn't really suitable for TMR.

Previous publications and credentials don't sway us, but a brief cover letter is not a bad thing. We're mainly interested in the work itself.

The entire thing. We're writers, too, so we know how much time and effort goes into the writing we receive. We're also fortunate enough to have a large enough staff that we can respond to the writer's work in a timely manner, so we make sure that we read looking for a reason to accept the manuscript, rather than looking for a reason to reject a manuscript. Because of this, we read everything with care.

None. We just decide based on the strength of the manuscript.

We edit with care and sensitivity. All writers should expect to be edited well and should also expect to participate in the process. Authors review all edits made to their work in TMR.

We nominate for all the major prize anthologies, some more specialized awards, and some international awards. We remain open to authors we've published who request that we nominate work for specific recognitions and try to accommodate them when we can.