Editor Interview: Common Ground Review Poetry Contest

smart sensual imagery

Orion, Quartet, Perugia, Lit Shark, Poet Lore, Anacapa Review, Clade Song

Ada Limon, Bob Hass, Ross Gay, Forrest Gander, C.D. Wright, Bin Ramke, Donald Revell, Harryette Mullen, Susan Schultz, Karen Skolfield, D. Dina Friedman, Ruth Ozeki, Rita Dove, Kate Atkinson, Joy Harjo, Jennifer Ackerman, Zadie Smith

We are particularly open to poems from new and emerging writers. When we reject work, we will often identify which of the poems submitted came closest in our discussion, or suggest where we think the work might have been more successful or where it was most successful. On the other hand, we are often slower to respond than many others.

Read at least some of the current issue to get an idea of what we are interested in. There's no pay wall!

A poem that uses clear imagery to explore an idea (or a confluence of ideas) and arrive in a place that keeps the reader thinking.
A short story that involves us immediately in the world of the characters and brings us somewhere new.
A creative nonfiction essay that makes us think, that has its facts down but doesn't overwhelm us with them.
Something that gives us hope, a moment of laughter, some light.

They send too much--some send us whole book manuscripts; some appear to be sending us their books piece by piece in multiple submissions, which would be fine if we had time to review other submissions as well.

We ask for a brief bio because we'll print it if we publish the poem/short story/essay. We read the bio only after we decide to accept the work.

I usually read every piece to the end. The other readers generally do the same. But if a poem is longer than 61 lines, or a prose piece is longer than 12 pages, we won't accept it anyway. (See guidelines!)

We have 3 poetry editors who will read a piece if it gets a "maybe" or a "yes" from me or whichever editor or intern has seen it first. If it still gets a "maybe," we generally wait until the magazine is almost ready to go before we decide if it is a "yes" or a "no."

I have recently retired from full-time teaching. My routine now each day is to read submissions and assign them to the other editors and/or interns, respond to queries, set up the poetry contest, invite and work with the judge, review the editors' and interns' comments, reject or accept submissions, and stop reading when my brain is too full to comprehend what I'm working on.

We usually don't edit much; occasionally we will suggest changes and work with the author to arrive at a mutual decision.

We hope to do so in the future.

Common Ground Review, for the most part, is self-funded. The exception is the contest: fees go to the prizes, the judge's honorarium, and Submittable.

We promote Common Ground Review and our authors on Duotrope and Facebook, in Poets & Writers, and on our website.