Submissions Update

A note from your friendly managing editor

Dear Submitters:

Thanks to all who submitted during our winter submission period. Our editors are hard at work reading your poems and stories.

In case you were wondering how our process works, each piece is read by two separate editors. Editorial pairings are made such that each pair includes one scholar and one creative writer. The editors do not consult one another, so for a piece to be accepted, it must have independent approval from two editors. We accept less than 5% of submissions.

I have begun notifying submitters of the status of their work this week. I will continue responding to both paper and electronic submissions as editors complete their reading. I anticipate that I will be able to notify all submitters by mid-May. If you do not hear from me by mid-May, please drop me a line. I have had several emails bounce back to me already. If an email does not go through, I send a letter via snail mail, but if you did not include a SASE, I have no way to reach you.

If your work has been accepted elsewhere, please let me know as soon as possible. Further, if you submitted online, you can log on to your account and withdraw work yourself. I understand that we are slow to respond and we encourage writers to send simultaneous submissions, but it is very important for us to know if your work is no longer available.

On our end, we are working hard to improve reporting times. If you submitted between November 2012 and January 2013, your response time will be 4-7 months, which--while still slow--is much faster than our previous record of about 12 months. We will continue striving to improve in this regard, but please know that we are a volunteer editorial board. The Worcester Review is truly a labor of love, and we are grateful for the chance to read your work. We'd rather take our time to thoughtfully consider each piece than rush through the submissions.

We will reopen to submissions on May 1. We look forward to reading more great stories and poems!


Sincerely,

Diane Mulligan

Contact Diane