Editor Interview: San Pedro River Review

lives and lanscapes

Post Road, New York Quarterly, Southern Poetry Review, Louisiana Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Talking River Review, Crab Orchard Review, Concho River Review, South Carolina Review, Connecticut River Review, Texas Review,Tulane Review, Sugar House Review, Hobo Camp Review, Southern Review, Copper Nickel, Emerson Review, Southwestern American Literature, Sow's Ear.

POETS: Richard Hugo, Joseph Millar, Naomi Shihab Nye, Larry D. Thomas, Yusef Komunyakaa, Philip Levine, Raymond Carver, Doug Anderson, Bruce Weigl, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, BH Fairchild, Walt McDonald, Jim Harrison, Patricia Smith, Jake Adam York, Nicholas Christopher, Larry Levis. FICTION WRITERS: Dorothy Hughes, Raymond Carver, Cormac McCarthy, James Salter, James Lee Burke, Andre Dubus, Ron Carlson, Ellen Gilchrist, Annie Proulx, Diana Abu Jaber, Barbara Kingsolver. OTHERS: CS Lewis.

Though not totally unique, we respond within 30 days. And we usually go to press within two weeks of the submission window closing. The reason is that building the proof commences the day after the window closes. Having the acceptance, bio, address, and cover shell files updated daily helps immensely once the window's over and it's time to build the proof. As an overarching comment, we are two editors with different writing styles who are also married and support each other's differences in poetic sensibilities. This results in a good mix of poetry and art for San Pedro River Review.

First, read the guidelines. It is patently obvious when someone doesn't. In sum, we prefer poetry that focuses on characters, places, substantive objects. But we are leery of the overly-prosaic, the gabby. We consider all forms of poetry, including prose poems. We also recommend that potential submitters check out the work of poets we've published in current and past issues, especially those we publish on a consistent basis.

One that employs strong poetic skill, economy of language (concision, not brevity, per se), tells a story through good employment of figurative language, is written in tight images, and has a strong ending, one preferably with an appreciation for the concept of negative capability. We like poems that explore the intersections of lives and landscapes, hence our strong liking for poetry of Place. We consider many forms of poetry.

It likely comes down to not reading nor understanding the guidelines. Granted, you have to keep guidelines brief otherwise editors appear to be teaching or coaching the submitter. Prolix, inartistic gabbiness is a big violation; one must police articles, adverbs, adjectives -- not let those run amok or we get turned off right away. Problems arise when the poem reads like some ordinary, rambling conversation without any sense of poetic craft. Sometimes you can get away with such a style, but it better be writing that grabs the reader right off the bat, like a good prose poem. Having mentioned these items, we do try to be lenient -- on very rare occasions we offer editorial suggestions to strengthen a poem.

We do care about cover letters. We like name, physical and email address, and a standard bio of publication credits -- maybe three to five. Previous publication doesn't matter, per se, but we do like to know a little about where they have been published. However, that does not sway us in our decision of whether to accept their work or not. And we don't mind a little humor in the bio, if that's what they want to send us.

We can generally tell after reading the first 10-12 lines, sometimes less; sometimes if the poem is longer and not interesting right off the bat, we skip around to read different stanzas or places within the poem if it is one long stanza. Nevertheless, we read each work in its entirety, often more than once. Many times we're surprised that a poem written in less-than interesting language still manages to surprise us at the end with a knock-out last line that redeems the poem. Occasionally there is a word or line that's a definite instant turn-off, such as several multiple-syllable words -- especially scientific terms -- that are simply unwieldy to the ear. However, such words alone do not keep us from considering the entire poem. We are also cognizant of bad or weak line breaks; though again, those alone wouldn't make us turn away a poem.

Initially, we hold on a lot more pieces of poetry and art than we can economically publish, so we have a 'final round' in which some of the pieces we initially liked have to painfully be let go; the list, let's say, is reduced from an initial 150 pieces down to a workable 75 or so. On occasion we'll ask if we can take a poem or piece of artwork for a subsequent issue, but that is rare; it's better to ask the submitter to consider us again during the next submission window.

I open the submission first, give my view of the poems, then forward the email on to Tobi, my co-editor. If we disagree on a whether a certain poem should be included, we temporarily set it aside, then see where it shakes out in the final round. If we decide to reject a submission, I simply move the email into a rejection folder, then mark it in pen on a tablet under a rejection column. If the poem is accepted, then I transfer poem, address & email, and bio, to master MS Word documents, and also annotate the acceptance on paper, and move the submission to our acceptance folder. Just staying organized is over 90% of the editors' job. I learned over time that checklists are vital to ensure proper spelling of a contributor's name, inclusion of their poem or art in the issue's interior, that their name appears on the back cover with the other contributors, bio is included, etc. Despite computer technology, that paper tablet tablet is my best organizational tool. Another organizing tool is backing up all files, on a daily basis. This means a thumb drive in addition to laptops.

We correct obvious typos. If a poem title is all caps, we change it to lower case, save for those words in the title that should, by standard use, be in capitals. Sometimes we suggest a change in verb tense. However, tense is not a deal-breaker. Poems are submitted in all kinds of fonts but we have a standard font and size when we go to press. On rare occasions we suggest that a poem end her or his poem after a certain line or stanza. We also edit bios if they are a bit long. Writers must approve final edits, save for those obvious typos.