Editor Interview: The Indianapolis Review

ART + POEMS + both

EcoTheo Review, The Nation, Tinderbox, Waxwing, Adroit, Colorado Review, TAB journal of poetry and poetics, Ethel zine.

Writers we love and have published: K-Ming Chang, Joyelle McSweeney, Douglas Manuel, Karen Skolfield, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Jenn Givhan, Jose Hernandez Diaz, Romana Iorga, Angelique Zobitz, Nancy Chen Long, Sara Quinn Rivara, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Alessandra Lynch, Joshua Aiken
Artists we love and have published (including Visual poets): S Jane Sloat, Israel Solomon, Rebecca Robinson, Nasreen Khan, Kelsey Zimmerman, Alexis Orgera, Rodney Gomez, Meg Reynolds

We often spotlight Indiana writers and artists or writers from our region. We take pride in our Indianapolis community of writers, but we also are connected to writers and artists around the country and the world. Geography is not a limit in who we do publish. We are also not afraid to publish unknown writers and artists, and have been the first publication for some poets.

As every editor says, the best thing to do is read the publication first to see if your work is a fit. However, I think it's also very important to remember when submitting that if you do get rejected, you should not be discouraged. Continue to work on your craft and know that we cannot accept all the poems that we want to. Competition is fierce, and we get a lot of submissions. I will also say that if you are thinking to yourself that you would like to start your own literary journal to see what all the fuss is about, you should just do it! I started Indianapolis Review with nothing.

There is no such thing as an 'ideal submission.' The only thing I can say about this is that often the poetry and art that stands out seems unique, has a strong voice or vision, but there are no set rules. Poetry and art breaks rules and expectations.

Our submitters are great overall, perhaps because of the little bit of extra effort it takes to type in our email address and not do everything through Submittable! Also, we don't have really strict guidelines about cover letters, titles of files, page numbers, that kind of thing. Every once in awhile, someone will send a prose submission, and we don't publish prose currently. Sometimes I think we get mixed up with Indiana Review. Ha.

I like a nice third person bio, but you don't have to list EVERY previous publication or award. That being said, I don't hold it against someone if they do that.

I assign email submissions to my assistant editors, and I look at every submission myself as well. We try to have 2 people look at each submission. If there is confusion and indecision about a piece, I have all 5 of my staff look at it and give feedback.

I think most editors don't do much editing to poetry that they accept these days, and we are no different. At least this has been my experience as a poet. I have only had a couple of journals work with me on making major edits to a poem, and I am not sure that I liked the results. Typically, if we accept it, we don't want any edits, but sometimes the poet will work with me to make changes that they want.

We nominate for Best of Net and Pushcart Prizes annually.