PR docks its rowboat for the season and heads back to the work of producing the literary magazine, beginning with the very good news that Editor-in-Chief Julie Wakeman-Linn and Fiction Editor J.W. Wang will be going to AWP15. Their proposal, “Slush Pile Standouts,” was among the 500 out of 1300 proposals accepted for the conference to be held in Minneapolis in April. Read the full proposal below, and, if you’re attending the AWP, plan on joining us for this lively and informative session:
Slush Pile Standouts: Thoughts from the Editor’s Desk. (Julie Wakeman-Linn, Mark Drew, Cara Blue Adams, Erin Hoover, J.W. Wang)
The slush pile acceptance rate at a typical literary journal is less than 1%, and frequently the editors do not read past the first page. What do editors look for, and what can writers do to give their submissions a greater chance of success? How much effect do cover letters have? This panel offers thoughts, comments, and suggestions from the editors’ point of view: what catches our attention, what are some common pitfalls, and what we love to see, and what a “dream submission” may look like.