Review Process
What Happens After A Piece is Submitted
Here is our official submission policy:
American Literary Magazine seeks to promote the artistic community at American University. All members of the AU community may submit work they deem qualified for review. All final acceptance decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief and the genre editors. American Literary Magazine selects content based on a blind review process. While we attempt to preserve anonymity in all cases, perfectly blind submissions are impossible. Therefore professional discretion is upheld at all times. All copyrights revert to the artists upon publication, unless otherwise noted.
This policy is printed in every edition of AmLit, but the submissions process at AmLit can still be a little bewildering. So here is the (long and winding) journey that a typical submission takes.
Step #1-Submitting
UPDATE!: We now offer TWO ways of submitting. You can submit your work digitally, or do it the old fashioned way. For digital submissions instructions, go to the “In-Depth Submission Guidelines” section. To do it the old fashioned way, the artist submits his or her work to AmLit using the official AmLit submission forms, which are available at the Student Activities desk on the second floor of Mary Graydon Center (MGC 271) by the deadline. They are also available to download and print from this website. The reason we ask that submitters use the official AmLit application is that we would prefer that no identification is present on the actual work (although if it is we will come up with some way of safely obscuring it!). The deadline is typically about a month into each semester, and will be heavily advertised by witty (we hope!) fliers around campus, as well as tweets,facebook messages, and information put up on this very website.
SPRING 2012 SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17TH!
Step #2-Processing
After the deadline passes, the Editor-in-Chief gathers up the armfuls of submissions and locks themselves into the AmLit office or their respective apartments to begin sorting out the submissions. The only person who ever sees the applications, which have actual names and other identifying information on it, is the Editor-in-Chief. Through a long, arduous process, the Editor-in-Chief numbers each submission so that the submission and the application can be safely separated from each other, and records each submissions number on the application. The applications are then stored in a secret binder that is only accessible by the Editor-in-Chief (as in, the binder is either lugged around by them or is put in a locked cabinet that only the Editor-in-Chief has the keys for), and will not be looked at again until after the Review Sessions.
Step #3-Review
After separating the applications from the actual submissions, the Review Sessions take place. We have four genres at AmLit: Art/Design, Photography, Prose, and Poetry. Each of the genres has their own review session, which all members of the AmLit staff are allowed (and encouraged, and cajoled) to attend. The review sessions are led by the Genre Editors (for example, the Prose editor will rule the roost at the Prose Review Session). The Editor-in-Chief attends each review session, but must remain mute because they actually know the identity of the submitter. They are not allowed to give any opinions because those opinions would be inherently biased. Each review session is a little different, but they are all the same in a couple of ways. First, they are all run by their respective genre editors, who lead the discussion and tally votes. Second, the key rule of the review sessions is that if any of the staff present know the identity of the artist who submitted a particular piece of work, they must abstain from voting. The piece could be their own, or their roommates, or something they recognize from art class or creative writing. Regardless, if they know who produced that piece, they have to keep quiet. We don’t require that they put their head on the table and cover their ears, but that is basically what happens. After asking if anyone needs to abstain from voting, the genre editors begin the vote and discussion of each piece. A piece must have a majority of votes to make it into the magazine—for example, if there are 22 people at the review session, the piece must have at least 12 votes. If there is a tie, there is another round of discussion. If there is another tie, the Editor-in-Chief acts as a tiebreaker. This happens pretty rarely, and is the only point in the review session where the Editor-in-Chief can participate. After that they have to go back to their corner. After the end of a long, animated, exhausting review session, the genre editors are left with two lists: submissions that made it into the magazine, and submission that didn’t. It is important to know that we do not have a set number of poems, or photographs, or pieces of art or short stories that we want in the magazine. We will publish as many pieces that the staff decides on in review sessions, and the best way to influence what type of work gets into the magazine is to join the staff! It is also important to note that professionalism is the name of the game at the review sessions. A big part of the genre editor’s responsibility is ensuring that every discussion is purely professional, and that all criticism is constructive. We also give a big disclaimer at the beginning of each session about respecting the artists who took the time to submit to our magazine, and we take that policy very seriously. We are most definitely not meanies.
Step #4-Notification
After the review session, the genre editors notify every single person that submitted anything to the magazine with the decision made at the review session. This part can get tricky. Everyone on staff at AmLit is an artist, and an inevitable part of an artist’s life is being turned down sometimes. It happens to everyone. It has happened to me (Rachel, one of the Editors-in-Chief this year, the person who is going on about all of this) more than once, and I’ve been submitting poetry to AmLit since I was a wee freshman. The second-worst possible outcome of being turned down is feeling that is has been done unfairly, which is why we go to great lengths to ensure a fair submissions process. And the absolute worst outcome is giving up. Please, please, please submit to AmLit again even if your work was turned down. Review sessions are fickle—we are only human, after all. We also allow artists to re-submit pieces if they want to.
Now I’m exhausted just thinking about the submissions process, and it hasn’t even started yet for this semester. If you actually read this far…well, first of all, please join our staff because you clearly have a tolerance for rambling. But second of all, if you have any further questions about the submissions process, please shoot us an email at amlitmag@gmail.com.