Editor’s note: Issue 07
Editor’s note for Issue 07 includes a look at numbers, insights and themes, and other notes from the Reservoir Road Literary Review Editor-in-Chief, Adrienne Marie Barrios.
Dear reader,
Thank you for your continued readership, now following us into our second year of existence!
This last issue marks the first with editors driving the vision and acceptances for creative nonfiction and flash fiction, and I very much enjoyed experiencing the leadership of Kavan and Wilson and the continued passion of Dorian. We saw a very competitive submission landscape for both poetry and photography. Overall, I have no doubt this issue will be just as poignant for you as readers as the previous six.
Numbers
In January, the reading period for Issue 07, we kept our caps at the standard limits due to a lack of bandwidth for more. We also decided to even the ratio due to the exceptional quality of poetry across all the submissions, meaning our poetry acceptance rates are higher and our prose, lower.
Here are the total submissions by category with acceptance rates.
Fiction: 150 submissions (150 cap), 1 acceptance; acceptance rate of 0.7%
Flash fiction: 150 submissions (150 cap), 1 acceptance; acceptance rate of 0.7%
Flash creative non-fiction: 91 submissions (150 cap), 4 acceptances; acceptance rate of 4.4%
Poetry: 75 submissions (75 cap), 6 acceptances; acceptance rate of 8%
Photography: 87 submissions (150 cap), 11 acceptances; acceptance rate of 12.6%*
TOTAL ACCEPTANCE RATE: 553 submissions, 23 acceptances; acceptance rate of 4.2%
*Please note: This is calculated based on submission count, not based on the number of photographs per submission.
Insights
I think it’s no mistake that all the pieces you’ll read in this issue seem to dance around the same undercurrent of emotions: grief, despair, examining hypothetical and real traumas of ourselves and of others. Many people are looking at the past and at the present and wondering when they might feel some reprieve, and this desire came through all of our submissions. We saw a lot of focus on grief of all different forms. I think we’ll likely continue to see that in coming submission periods.
Wish list
Sometimes, a heavy focus on grief and trauma in the expected sense can lead to overdone plots and trite conveyances of emotion. I’d like to see more unusual takes on these shared emotions that look past the surface of the experience and dig into everything surrounding: You’re grieved, but what does your day look like? How do you continue to do the things you have to do? How does that feeling slip back beneath the surface when something or someone distracts you, and what is it about that person or moment that so captures your attention? Follow that thought. Take us with you.
Changes to next reading period
We don’t have any specific changes coming at this time and are pausing ideas around themed issues.
Closing
I hope you enjoy Issue 07. We were delayed, but it promises to be worth the wait. And the sole longer fiction piece is one of the best stories I’ve ever read.
Best,