Editor Interview: Furrow Literary Magazine

The best undergrad work

Booth, Ninth Letter, A Public Space, Cream City Review

While most undergraduate literary journals only publish work from students at their host school, Furrow accepts submissions from undergraduates at any U.S. college or university. So we receive an extraordinary number of submissions for each issue (sometimes over 1,000), and this enables us to publish what we consider the very best work from undergraduates across the country. (Our 2019 issue earned the AWP Program Directors Prize for best undergraduate literary journal!)
Another thing that sets Furrow apart is that our undergraduate student editors do ALL the work. They don't just pick which pieces to publish, they handle copyediting, layout, design, web design, fundraising, promotion, and everything else it takes to put out a beautifully designed and professional-quality print and web publication.

Make sure your work is carefully polished and revised. Competition is stiff, and if your manuscript shows that you took special care to make it as polished, cohesive, and satisfying as possible, editors will trust you and take note of it.

The ideal submission uses language (or art technique) in skillful and surprising ways. It has substance and emotional resonance, and uses specific detail and vivid imagery to create a memorable experience for our audience. The ideal submission is complex and unusual enough to invite discussion. It is not formulaic or reliant on hackneyed tropes or stereotypes.

Cover letters aren't that important to Furrow.

We go into each submission hoping for greatness, but if a piece obviously isn't right for us or ready for publication, we will stop reading.

Though we don't generally have time in our production schedule to work with each author on substantial content edits, we do send recommended copyedits to each accepted author and give them the chance to approve (or reject) copyedits. Occasionally, if a submission is exceptionally promising but has some issues that could be resolved with relatively easy content edits, we will engage an author in discussion about content edits.

Sometimes.