Editor Interview: Red Cedar Review

Stunning undergrad work.

I am a longtime fan of Pank, Booth, and The Believer. I wildly admire OSU's Prism and Edinboro University's Chimera.

Red Cedar Review publishes both undergraduate writing and artwork. My favorite submissions surprise me, challenge genre conventions, and showcase a ringing voice. My favorite writers include Lynda Barry, Jeffrey Eugenides, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick.

As the longest-running undergraduate-managed literary journal in the United States, we are committed to showcasing all kinds of exciting work from the bright, talented undergrads that submit to us. We encourage students to send us creative work that tests the boundaries of form, genre, and content, even offering a submission form for hybrid pieces. Above all, we're interested in providing a space for undergraduate writers and artists to break out with a bang.

Be you. Try to find your own voice in your writing/artwork rather than emulating someone else, because those genuine, introspective, clear pieces are the ones that really stand out.

The only information we need in a cover letter is name, contact information, and undergraduate status. Lists of previous publication credits will do nothing to help or hinder chances of acceptance, though the submitter may include them if she wishes.

The life of a student editor is always busy, between balancing work like reading submissions, communicating with authors, and layout with schoolwork, jobs, and, hopefully, some semblance of a social life (or at least sleep). A lot of late nights go into student editorship, but it's all worth is when the final product rolls off of the press and into your hands.

Each piece goes through basic proofreading. Pieces that staff decide would benefit from more substantial edits are treated by our copyeditors and sent back to the author for approval. However, most pieces do not undergo a lot of major edits.