What is Mid-American Review?
We're a literary journal published by the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. We've been publishing poetry, fiction and essays for twenty years, by both new and established writers, and have had work reprinted in The Pushcart Prize, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South,and Harper's Magazine.Ultimately, our goal remains the same: to publish of the best contemporary writing and put it in front of the largest possible audience. Visit our History
How do I get published in MAR?
How can I get a copy of MAR?
Mid-American Review
Please specify what issues you are requesting.
What's the make-up of your staff?
What is the editorial process at MAR? How does my submission get considered?
Unlike some other journals, our process is an editors-down approach, which means that each genre editor personally considers every single piece that comes to them. This means that submissions are read first by the top editors and then passed on to the rest of the staff. The first-read process takes about a month, but can take longer.
Submissions that don't make this first cut are returned with our sincere thanks. Yes, we really do mean thank you. We realize that everyone would like to have an explanation of why the submission didn't work, but please understand why it's not realistic. When it comes to rejections, though, here's some advice: (A) Don't read too much into any rejection slip. Just send us something new.(B) The consideration process is subjective, so don't get down if a piece didn't work for us. (C) A rejection slip bears no meaning to you as a person or your writing in general. Each submission is considered individually with regards to what each editor needs for the upcoming issue. You may have a wonderful poem, but it's not accepted because the poetry editor just accepted two like it. Just keep sending. (D) The most important thing about rejection letters, though, is this: keep sending and keep writing better stuff. All the MAR editors are writers and we are very conscious of our position as writers who are editors.
If your submission makes it to the second-read stack, it is put up for discussion at our weekly meetings that incorporate the entire editorial staff. The staff reads through as many as time permits (saving the rest for the next week's meeting) and giving specific comments on whether or not they think this piece would be a good fit for MAR. If a second read receives a warm response from the staff--at least a few editors saying "yes"--it's again moved on, for final consideration. If interest in a second read is limited, however, the genre editor will look it over one more time, and if he/she agrees with the staff that it's ultimately not going to work out, he/she writes a note to the writer and returns their work, trying to be as frank as possible about its status and encouraging the writer to send more work. If the genre editor disagrees with the staff, however, and likes a piece they don't, the work is presented to the Editor-in-Chief; the genre editors, if they so choose, can override the decision of the assistant editors, something that happens with some regularity. The whole second read process can take anywhere from a month to three months after the initial first read period, depending on what time of year it is and how much space editors are looking to fill.
The work chosen by the staff for final consideration, along with work favored by the genre editors, is then put to a discussion, where every editor in that genre speaks to the work's merits and casts their votes. Work that is voted in by the staff is taken by the genre editor to the Editor-in-Chief for final approval. If the Editor-in-Chief gives the thumbs up, the work in contracted and scheduled for appearance in MAR.
All work sent to MAR receives equal and fair consideration, and when we can, we do so quickly. The staff of MAR is made up entirely of writers, so we understand how important this process is, and more importantly, how important it is to treat the writers who submit to us with the utmost respect. And because we understand the lives of writers, when we return submissions, we include other pertinent information that would be of interest, contest information, workshop information, discounted submission rates.
Preferences for cover letters?
Do you have a reading period?
What's your turnaround time?
How about electronic submissions? Email or fax?
Do you charge for reading?
How do you feel about simultaneous submissions?
Should I ever resubmit a manuscript to MAR once it's been rejected?
No. Unless an editor has specifically asked you to revise and resend a specific piece, you should only submit work we haven't seen before. Even if we say we liked a piece, told you it made it to the final stages of consideration, or even just sent a "please feel free to submit again" rejection slip, we are only interested in reviewing a manuscript once.
How do you pronounce Czyzniejewski?
How do I make a donation to MAR?
First, familiarize yourself with what we like to publish. The easiest way to do this is to order a back issue of MAR and check out the sample contents on our website. Think like an editor. Why do you think the Poetry Editor chose these poems? What do you think was striking about them that caught his/her eye? Why do you think the Nonfiction Editor chose these essays? What similarities do the short stories share? What's the difference? If you see similarities between the stories (language, arc, characterization, etc.), that's probably something that the Fiction Editor is specifically looking for. Do you have a story that contains those characteristics? If you see that there aren't any scholarly essays in MAR, that's a good indication that the Nonfiction Editor isn't interested in scholarly essays. A caveat here: just because you might not see a type of poem/essay/story in MAR's pages doesn't necessarily mean we don't want that. It might mean we haven't gotten a sonnet that's really grabbed us. If you're wondering if we'd be interested, ask us. Once you've got something you think we'd really like, send it to us!
Back issues of MAR are available at a rate of $5 per issue, $10 for the most current issue, our double-sized Ohio Bicentennial Celebration. Subscriptions are available at a rate $12 for one year, $20 for two years, and $28 for three years; special library and bulk rates are available.
Send payment in the form of check or money order (made out to Mid-American Review) to:
Department of English
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, Ohio 43403
Our executive staff (Editors-in-Chief, Associate Editor, Fiction Editor, Nonfiction Editor, Poetry Editor) are all full-time faculty at Bowling Green State University. They all have MFAs in creative writing (Mike in fiction, Karen C. in poetry, Ashley in fiction from BGSU). They have all worked their way up through the various staff positions to where they are today and they have years of experience behind them. The rest of the executive staff (assistant poetry and fiction editors, managing editor) are 2nd-year MFA students in the creative writing program. The assistant editors are comprised of 1st and 2nd-year MFA students. We are committed to an editors-down approach, which means that our genre editors read everything that comes into our offices before it is passed on to the rest of the staff for consideration (see below).
We have a very detailed process, starting with the logging of the mail. A date is stamped on the envelope, it's logged into our database, and then it's passed on to the particular genre editor (this is why it's not okay to put more than one genre in an envelope). The submission is put at the end of the first-read pile to be read in the order they're received. (See below to see why the time this process takes may vary.)
No, we don't really have any concrete preferences for cover letters. However, we do view cover letters as a professional courtesy, which means you should have one. (If you don't, we won't automatically reject you, so don't worry.) Make sure you have all the ways we can contact you: address, email, phone number. If we have good news for you, we want to give it to you quickly! As for content, short and sweet is the name of the game here. We want to know what the name of your submission is (if you're submitting poetry, how many poems are in your packet), what genre. You can tell us a little bit about yourself, but don't go overboard. Keep it pertinent. Look at the bio information in the back of MAR--usually the most pertinent information is educational background, publications, etc. If what you're telling us doesn't have to do with your writing background, we don't need to know it. We want to spend our time reading your submission, not your cover letter.
We do not. We read year-round, though our turnaround time is longer in the summer.
It depends on the genre and the time of year, but generally 1-5 months. We know that writers are anxious to know the status of their submission, but querying us after two weeks won't make us read it any faster. We read everything in the order it's received, so the number of submissions affects how fast we read. We're also affected by our other commitments (contests, Winter Wheat, summer, etc.) If it's been 6 months, feel free to query our Managing Editor about its status.
We do not currently accept electronic submissions.
Never. Our contests, though, do require a fee. But we never charge for our general submissions.
We love them. We believe that simultaneous submissions exposes us to the best work that's out there and it challenges us, as editors, to keep on top of submissions, at the risk of losing good work to other journals (and we have). All we ask is that if your work is taken by another journal, please let us know IMMEDIATELY. Self addressed stamped postcards are fine, but emails are just as fine.
For the most part, Mike's last name is pronounced "chiz-nyee-YEV-ski."
Mid-American Review is a non-profit organization and appreiciates donations of all amounts. These donations are used for the publication of the magazine, as well as, when funding permits, payment to authors. All donors will receive notation in the front material of future issues of MAR, and an official tax deduction notice from the university. Please make checks or money orders out to "BGSU Foundation" and write "Mid-American Review" on the Note line.
Click here to view our submission guidelines.
Click here to meet our staff.