Editor Interview: The Journal

honest, original work

With an all-graduate-student staff, The Journal is constantly evolving. The genre and managing editors change annually or bi-annually, so we're always accepting slightly different work. The changing staff also means that new ideas get implemented regularly and rapidly; each new editor leaves his or her mark on the magazine and its processes. We're also particularly proud of the dual online/print nature of the magazine, which allows us to choose the best format for each piece we publish. That means we can publish elaborate art features in a variety of media, audio recordings of selected writers, a wide range of interviews and reviews of new books, and more.

Check out our submission guidelines and archived issues, of course. Keep in mind that we're looking for original, daring work though--if what you do isn't represented in out most recent issues, that could mean that we'd be even more excited to publish it.

Genre editors respond:
Fiction Editor: We are interested in stories with clear narrative focus, that treat their characters both honestly and fairly, and that strive to earnestly explore political, social, and spiritual questions. We love to read work that experiments with genre and form. We've been able to publish work that varies greatly in style and subject matter and value this eclecticism--there may not really be an ideal Journal submission
Poetry Editor: The Journal is open to all different kinds of poetry. However, we are most interested in poems that stun us, poems that grab our attention and hold it. Technical proficiency is important, but only when paired with content that challenges us on emotional and psychological levels.
Nonfiction Editor: We love essays that invite us into the author’s world and mind; essays that introduce us to insight and experience that we might not be privy to otherwise; essays that make us think from a new perspective, that make us stop to sigh over beautiful language, that compel us to keep reading. None of this can be totally objective, of course—but no essay is either.

We rarely have problems now that we've switched to using Submittable, and our submitters do a wonderful job of reading our submission guidelines, which you can find at thejournalmag.org/submit.

Except for our contests, which are read and judged blind, we prefer to see a professional cover letter that includes a brief bio (relevant academic study, experience, publications only). We rarely, however, read the cover letter first, and if someone doesn't have any publications, that could be a good thing. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of work, which means publishing work from new and emerging artists as well as established writers.

All of our submissions are first read by our extraordinary staff of readers (an updated list of whom can be found on the Masthead page of our website). After the first read-through, all submissions are assigned to our associate genre editors, who make the initial rejections. Finally, the most promising pieces are passed to the genre editors, who make final publication decisions, including selecting what issue the piece will appear in.