Gerald Maa, Editor of The Georgia Review, Discusses Literary Publications
In this post, Gerald Maa, Editor of The Georgia Review, discusses what distinguishes literary publications from other consumer magazines, what he’s seeking, how much they pay, and so much more.
Gerald Maa is a writer, translator, and editor based in Athens, GA. His poetry and translations have appeared in places such as Poetry, American Poetry Review, and Push Open the Window: Contemporary Poetry from China (Copper Canyon, 2011). His essays have appeared in places such as Criticism, Studies in Romanticism, A Sense of Regard: Essays on Poetry and Race (University of Georgia, 2015), and The Little Magazine in Contemporary America (University of Chicago, 2015).
Work from his practice of activated writing have been performed and mounted in Los Angeles, New York, and Sweden. In 2010, he founded The Asian American Literary Review with Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, where he served as editor-in-chief until starting his job at The Georgia Review in August 2019.
In this post, Maa discusses what distinguishes literary publications from other consumer magazines, what The Georgia Review is seeking, and so much more.
*****
Whether you are a writing novice looking to cut your teeth or a published professional, the short story is a unique and challenging medium that offers you amazing opportunities. Also, short stories are a great way to gain publishing credentials with less time investment than it takes to develop a novel-length work. The workshop covers structure and the common pitfalls writers experience when crafting a short story.
*****
What do you feel distinguishes literary journals and magazines from other consumer magazines on the market?
To engage with a magazine is essentially to be part of an ongoing relationship. On our end, we seek to keep you here as long as possible, from one issue to the next. On the reader's end, he/she/they read to see what has been going on in the space and conversations held by a particular title. To do this by way of literature is special because the sense of intimacy one experiences when one reads something that truly owns them is singular to literature, a rapturous feeling I can't even begin to describe here, at least not in this limited space.
What sets The Georgia Review apart from other literary magazines?
Every day I am thankful to be part of an organization with such a large staff of paid professionals. It very much takes a village to bring an issue out into the world, and I am blessed to have so many committed, hard-working people of various expertise to help bring each and every issue to our readers.
Do you have a submission period?
We accept submissions 15 August–15 May. Our Loraine Williams Poetry Prize opens 1 March.
What type of writing do you seek?
We like work whose vitality comes from engagement in some sort of conversation, literary, historical, political, and/or cultural. This need not be explicit, nor does the mere statement of any author or historical moment or cultural figure suffice. We like work that struggles so deliberately, and valiantly, within said conversation (and with one's own position) that, when reading the work, you get an undeniable sense of the plenitude of and the antagonisms within that lineage, whether it's new to you or not.
What type of payment do writers receive?
Writers earn $4/line for poetry and $50/printed page for prose.
What do you feel is the future of literary journals and magazines?
More of the same, I hope, as lifeblood for American arts and letters, which courses through pockets of individual collectives of readers.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
