Editor Interview: Beloit Poetry Journal

Poetry that matters

Crazy Horse, Massachusetts Review, Field, Seattle Review, Cerise Press, Rattle, Prairie Schooner, and so on. So many doing good work.

Among my favorite living poets: Carolyn Forche, Martha Collins, Fred Marchant, Sonya Sanchez, Kazim Ali, Jake Adam York, Susan Tichy, Kevin Prufer, Yusef Komunyakaa, Anne Carson

Our alertness to poetic invention, catholicity of taste, willingness to take risks, indifference to a poet's reputation, ability to spot new talent, and commitment to poetry that matters

Please read an issue, in hard copy or in our online archive, before sending us work.
We're interested in the poetry with quickened language that slides off the tongue (we choose poems by reading them aloud) and whose gaze is toward the world.

From the first line, it announces itself. It teaches the reader how to read it. It stakes out new territory in form, style, or subject matter. It knocks our socks off with surprise and delight.

Too many submitters knowingly or unknowingly violate our policy of not reading simultaneous submissions.
Despite our five-page limit (except for long poems), many submitters send 8, 10, or more pages. That makes us growl (and doesn't help their chances).
We limit submissions to two in a six-month period. Again, some people ignore that guideline.

Cover letters are optional. If you send one, don't just leap from "Dear Editors" to a list of credits; it seems discourteous. If you do list credits, a few representative publications will do. We're interested in the poems you send us, not where you've been published.

We read submissions all the way through. Sometimes the first poem is something we'd never take and the fifth poem sings to us.

When a manuscript comes in it is read by one of our co-editors. If it makes it through the first screening it is read by the other co-editor. If it makes it through that screening it is passed on to the other five members of the editorial board for comment. If any of the board members expresses serious interest in any poem in a manuscript it will be read aloud and discussed at our quarterly editorial board session, where final decisions are made.

The first screener gets up before dawn almost every morning and reads the 20 or so manuscripts that have come in since the day before. As the current second screener, I generally read manuscripts that have been passed on to me within a week of their arrival, on a less predictable schedule. Now that we take submissions online, both of us read at home. We add a personal note to almost every rejection notice.
Publishing a poetry journal entails much more than reading manuscripts, and amounts to full-time work for both of us. The tasks are extremely varied (searching out cover images, bookkeeping, corresponding with poets, laying out an issue, updating the website, etc.) and we are constantly prioritizing our to-do list.