VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW: The Editorial Process

During the past three months Nic Sebastian has conducted a series of interviews at her blog, Very Like a Whale, questioning about a dozen editors of literary journals on specifics about their publications and their perceptions of the role an editor assumes. Once a week, Sebastian posed the same ten questions to each editor. I was pleased by a request to participate, and my interview has been posted this week as the final entry in the series.

The issues raised during the dialogues are intended to examine each individual’s interest in editing and history of involvement as an editor with literary magazines. Additionally, some questions address particulars in the process of publication at each editor’s journal. Below, readers will find an example (number 7 from the 10 questions) of the comments I contributed to the series. The web page with my complete interview, as well as a link to full interviews with the other editors, can be viewed at Nic Sebastian’s blog.


7. Is your publication online, print or hybrid? Share your thoughts on the differences between these formats from an editorial point of view. Does your publication accept both snail mail and email submissions? Explain your policy in this regard.


. . . Valparaiso Poetry Review was begun as an online journal for economic reasons. Since my background consisted of editorial experience with print publications, I have adopted similar attitudes in point of view with my approach as editor of VPR. In addition to the economic advantages of an online journal, readers benefit by having easy access to the current issue, as well as all past issues, anywhere in the world. As a result, the readership and the potential audience for the works in VPR could never be matched if it were a print journal. Indeed, writing about this in an article at “One Poet’s Notes,” I once stated that I am pleased readers can click onto so many journals online, more than even any library could ever afford in individual subscriptions.

As I have written in another VPR blog entry, when the journal was initiated reputations of existing electronic literary magazines among authors and readers were spotty at best. In the past decade, opinions have changed as the quality of work in online journals has proven deserving of respect. For most, the stature of online journals is no longer questioned by authors to the extent it once was, nor does it continue to be an issue of concern for readers. Valparaiso Poetry Review today displays a wide range of well-known poets among its pages whose presence was limited to print journals only a few years ago. Nowadays, acknowledgments pages of prominent new books of poetry display many titles of online journals, including Valparaiso Poetry Review, alongside those titles of traditional print periodicals.

Also, when VPR was begun most poets submitted by postal mail. In the past decade that situation has shifted, and the vast majority of submissions received are sent by email. Other editors will confirm that handling email submissions is much more convenient for us, and writers will verify that email submissions are simpler and inexpensive. Therefore, many newer online journals now restrict submissions to email. However, VPR still accepts submissions in both formats. In fact, some of the best poems from a number of the well-known poets included in VPR have been presented only because snail mail submissions are acceptable. I know some poets we have published, usually older and more established figures, who will not send submissions by email.

In a recent informational piece on the VPR blog, I reported the following: the majority of submissions received in the first few years were sent by postal mail; however, a bit more than three-fourths of the nearly 7,500 poems received in the last year were sent by email. Curious about the relationship of submissions to acceptances, I have examined the results and discovered that a little more than three-fourths of the works appearing in the most recent issues of VPR were submitted electronically, indicating there is no subconscious editorial bias toward either form of submission . . . .


[Readers also are invited to view previous posts at “One Poet’s Notes” relating to this topic: “Online Literary Journals: Coming of Age,” “Poetry News and the New Media,” and “Celebrating Literary Journals and Small Presses.”]