Skip to Content

Editor Interview: Round Table Literary Journal

This interview is provided for archival purposes. The listing is not currently active.

Q: Describe what you publish in 25 characters or less.

A: Writing that surprises me

Q: What other current publications (or publishers) do you admire most?

A: I have eclectic tastes: I love Sundress Publications and Red Hen Press for their poetry. For cnf, Brevity and Hippocampus are the gold standards. There are a number of great online journals out right now devoted to short and flash fiction: I'm particularly fond of FlashBack Fiction and Jellyfish Review. For an overall print journal, I'm always impressed by the Cincinnati Review and The Louisville Review.

Q: If you publish writing, who are your favorite writers? If you publish art, who are your favorite artists?

A: For long writing works, I love Margaret Atwood and Sue Monk Kidd; you can't beat Frida Kahlo and Joan Mitchell for amazing paintings.

Q: What sets your publication apart from others that publish similar material?

A: We have a unique mission: we publish the best work both from our local area and from around the world. We also have a robust section for writers under eighteen.

Q: What is the best advice you can give people who are considering submitting work to your publication?

A: Read the guidelines! For example, because of our large children's corner, we are not the place for heavy profanity. We don't shy away from heavy subjects, but just don't send us a story riddled with words that can't be said on network television.

Q: Describe the ideal submission.

A: We love submissions, whether art or writing, that surprises us in some way. Whether it's depicting anger as an abstract painting, a photo of light shining through a tobacco shed, or writing that tells a story in an unusual manner, we want to be delighted by what we see or read.

Q: What do submitters most often get wrong about your submissions process?

A: For writing in particular, they send us great work that doesn't fit our journal. Because we have such an active children's section, we are not the place for anything but mild profanity. If it can't be said in the 8 PM time slot, we can't publish it, no matter how much our writers' hearts want to.

Q: How much do you want to know about the person submitting to you?

A: I like to see a cover letter with a third-person bio, but publication lists don't really matter. I want the work to stand on its own merits.

Q: If you publish writing, how much of a piece do you read before making the decision to reject it?

A: I can usually tell within the first page, but I always read every piece through to the end. It's just giving the writers the respect they deserve for having the courage to write in the first place, much less send their work out to be evaluated.

Q: What additional evaluations, if any, does a piece go through before it is accepted?

A: I read it, my co-editor reads it, then our editorial board and our student editors weigh in. With few exceptions, majority rules.

Q: What is a day in the life of an editor like for you?

A: Since I teach English at a community college in addition to being an editor, I have to set aside days to read submissions. I'll log in to our submission manager and read for several hours at a time. This really gives me an idea of what the next edition of the journal is going to look and feel like. Very rarely do I have the luxury of just reading a few submissions at a time.

Q: How important do you feel it is for publishers to embrace modern technologies?

A: I think it's extremely important to embrace modern technologies. As a journal that has been around for over fifty years, the Round Table Literary Journal was slow to go over to modern technology, but we're doing so, a bit at a time. I hope that in the future we will combine the best of the traditional print journal with the best of the new technologies.

Q: How much do you edit an accepted piece prior to publication?

A: As editors, we will edit for small bits of clarity and grammar, if necessary, without consulting the author. In anything further than that, we will definitely consult with the writer.

Q: Do you nominate work you've published for any national or international awards?

A: Yes! We nominate for the Pushcart Prize.