November/December 2022

Our November/December issue features a special section on literary magazines, including interviews with editors, articles on getting paid for your work, slow response times, and how to navigate the editing process; a conversation with Ross Gay, author of the essay collection Inciting Joy; a profile of Celeste Ng, author of the novel Our Missing Hearts; our seventh annual 5 Over 50 roundup of debut authors; an interview with Carmen Giménez, the new publisher of Graywolf Press; meditations on a writer’s practice by Carl Phillips; writing prompts; contest deadlines; and more.

Features

Seeds to Share: A Q&A With Ross Gay

by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Print Only

In his new essay collection, Inciting Joy, prize-winning poet and author Ross Gay turns our attention to what brings us together, extolling the pleasures of collaboration and the recognition of what connects us rather than divides us.

Publishing Spotlight: Literary Magazines

The Third Eye: Meet the Editors on the Other Side of the Desk

by Staff
Print Only

Five editors at some of the most innovative and finely curated literary journals around talk about the joys and difficulties of their work, from supporting new writers to sending more rejections than they’d like.  

What to Read Now

by Adrienne Raphel
Print Only

A review of thirteen literary magazines, including the Bennington Review, American Chordata, and the Margins, that will give even the most jaded reader a sense of renewed hope for the possible.

Getting Paid

by Aaron Gilbreath

While some literary magazines pay up to a few hundred dollars for literary work, many don’t pay at all. A published writer offers an overview of how to find paying markets, when to publish for free, and tips for a submission strategy.

Why So Slow?

by Seth Graves
Print Only

The volume of submissions that most literary magazines receive is a driving factor in slow response times. Complicating matters is the popularity of online submissions managers, supply-chain issues, and other problems brought on by the pandemic.

How to Navigate the Editing Process

by J. Drew Lanham
Print Only

An experienced science writer, poet, author, and teacher offers tips to help writers emerge from the editing process professionally and emotionally intact, including how to establish a congenial and constructive relationship with your editor.

News and Trends

Freedom Reads

by Alissa Greenberg

An organization founded and directed by Reginald Dwayne Betts seeks to bring the spirit of literature into prisons by installing libraries and inviting theater productions, book clubs, and world-class writers inside carceral walls.

New Dictionary Seeks Public Input

by Destiny O. Birdsong

The Oxford Dictionary of African American English, slated for release in 2025, will involve a three-year-long multidisciplinary research project compiling terms popularized by speakers of African American English.

The Practical Writer

The Literary Life

The Time Is Now: Writing Prompts and Excercises

by Staff
Print Only

Write a poem that reflects on your everyday language, a story that explores the inner life of your protagonist during a transition, or an essay about how the history of Thanksgiving affects the way you experience the holiday.

What We Are Carrying: Meditations on a Writing Practice

by Carl Phillips
Print Only

An acclaimed poet and professor explores writing as a lifelong apprenticeship, the difference between mastery and fluency, various forms of practice and discipline, and the importance of living one’s writing life attentively.

Classifieds