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News for yous : record submissions, readership, and more!

2 Feb

Hi friends,

It’s been a pretty exciting month for all of us at Sequoya Review. The 2012 issue of Sequoya Review will be released March 2012. We had a record number of submissions – 207 to be exact – to the 2012 issue, and a record readership of our 2011 issue. Thanks for reading us, and submitting! We have just sorted through all of them to let everyone who submitted know where they stand. If you did submit, thanks for playing! If you made it, congratulations; if not, there’s always next year.

Speaking of next year, we’re doing something crazy at the Sequoya Review this time around: submissions are open February 6! Check out the Submit section of the page for details and the link. (Please do read the guidelines though. We can’t accept it if it’s not in keeping with those, especially since we have so many now.

We also have a new thing going on in our ‘offices’ : we need volunteers to help us out! We’ve grown so much we don’t know what to do with ourselves, and you guys can help out! We need people to do the following:

  • write blog posts and press releases
  • archive old issues of the Sequoya Review and its other incarnations
  • market and advertise the magazine around UTC and Chattanooga

In return, we’re prepared to give you a credit in the Sequoya Review (which you can mention on your resume!), a better position to be an editor in the fall, and more! If you want to apply, please email us at srvolunteers@yahoo.com and tell us! We take all kinds, and can probably find something for you to do, so don’t hesitate! Please include your full name, academic grade year, cell number, email, and what positions interest you most. And be sure to check out our new Volunteer section for more updates!

Well that’s about it for now. Hope your year is getting to as good of a start as ours!

Aesthetic & form

12 Oct

Friends, the Sequoya Review is coming together again, earlier this year than any other. Usually, we are so busy in the spring, scrambling to get everything together–the pieces, the look and feel of the magazine, the website–that we have hardly any time to think about aesthetic as a concept. We have been forced, in the past, to sort of blindly grope around the subject of “good” work, using our intuition alone to guide us.

However, by moving the process to the fall we open up for ourselves a large swath of time. We are able to consider this concept of artfulness, and incorporate that into our selection process in a way never before possible. So, with this in mind, what is art? What are we to publish, as the Sequoya Review? I hope to answer this question, rudimentally and tentatively, now; moreover, I hope to spark some discussion in this matter, so that we can come to a better conclusion of who we are and what we publish. I hope that crowd-sourcing this endeavor may prove more fruitful than just laying down rules myself. My thoughts on the matter follow.

  1. The Sequoya Review is, first and foremost, a student publication. We provide a voice to the student population at UTC, fostering creativity here and giving it an outlet, holding up student work and showing it to the world at large, both academic and layman. This means we publish only work by those who are current students at UTC, however it does not mean that we should demand any less in the quality of the work; on the contrary, the students at this university have truly good work which deserves better than intellectual coddling.
  2. The Sequoya Review publishes good work. This is the crux of the matter: what is “good” work? Surely some definition is needed in order to proceed. Of course, with the different genres we publish it may seem difficult to give an across-the-board definition of aesthetic; but I believe that there are some qualities necessary to any work that we publish, and those are completeness and emotional truth. Of course, the work in question must be complete, which generally means some sort of tension and resolution. These are easier to delineate in what I will call the “timely” works, such as poetry, prose, and music, in which the piece unfolds before us through time as we read or listen to it; in visual art this is harder to do. However, if we look at a complete piece of art, it should have some element of tension within it (perhaps the creative process of the artist?) as well as a resolution (which, in the parenthetical case, would be the piece itself). In regards to what I’ve called emotional truth, I mean that quality of a complete piece that resonates with the viewer–that part of the author’s self that comes through in the recitation, reading or viewing of the piece itself. It is the connection that the producer makes through his art, the reaching-out into the world that causes others to recognize it as art. I feel that these two qualities cause a creative work, whether it be verbal, visual or aural in nature, to be what we call “good work.”

That’s a preliminary sketch of where we might be going as a magazine, but of course I can’t pilot this thing myself. We are a collective of students, and as we publish students we are also interested in what those we may publish have to say. So what do you think? What is “art”? What is “good”? Tell us in the comments.

Lois Lane takes a detour

28 Mar

This was my first semester as a part of the Sequoya Review staff.  I was thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about literary publishing and how to go about editing a literary magazine.  The first thing I learned was that I had no idea what I was doing.  I felt completely in over my head.  I am a newspaper editor, I deal with facts, attribution, quotation marks, and no comas before “and.”  I am a girl in the middle of a world of objectivity and I had been dropped into a sea of creativity.  It was daunting, nervewracking, and humbling.  Thankfully I was surrounded by people who had sat right where I was and they made it out alive, so there was atleast some hope for me. 

We dove right in to the reading process and I figured I would do pretty well with this, because I have been able to read for many years now.  With the first story I realized how different this process would be than editing my newspaper.  Any form of writing requires dedication and heart, because it is art.  This writing though, is like someone placing their soul out on the paper and I had to decide what I liked or disliked about it.  I began to wonder if I was really qualified to be making these decisions, what did I know about literary editing?  I was just the new kid on the block.  I definitely felt at home when the copy editing started though, that I did every week, so I knew I could at least handle dealing with the punctuation. 

With each story I became more emotionally invested in the process.  It was an honor to be able to read these writer’s thoughts and an even greater honor to be a small help in the process of getting them to publication.  So instead of focusing on all the things I didn’t know I started asking questions, even the embarrassing ones everyone else seemed to know the answer to.  I learned several things over the course of the semester, all of which I will be able to use in my future career as a journalist, writer, or circus preformer for all I know.

1. There will always be many people who know far more than you do so just accept it now and save yourself and everyone else the pain of you pretending you know everything.

2. Ask questions even if they are embarrassing, because not asking is far worse in the long run than not knowing.

3. There are unlimited types of writing and all of them are an art form.

4. You can always learn more about any subject.

5. Having a competant, well organized staff is not an option if you want success, it is a must.  End of discussion.

‘Thank you for your submission. Unfortunately…’

10 Mar

Rejection. It is quite possibly the dirtiest word in the English language. The average human being will undergo some form of the R-word approximately 3,127 times over the course of their lifetime, according to made up statistics. For writers, the R-word becomes the reoccurring billboard on Career Highway, with ‘NO’ dressed up and posed in various attitudes in bad fluorescent lighting; ‘Your piece wasn’t the right fit’, ‘We appreciate you thinking of us, BUT…’, ‘We are unable to give you an offer at this time’, and sometimes “Both myself and my assistant are considering legal action against you for wasting our valuable time with your relentless tripe” (visit oddee.com’s “10 Funniest Rejection Letters” for more).

Any editor will tell you that it isn’t personal; they aren’t R-ing you as a person, they are just R-ing the way you choose to express your person. Just because you write boring science fiction doesn’t mean that you, yourself, are boring… or so they would have you believe. So how does the sensitive writer avoid the slings and arrows of the editor’s pen and make it into at least a ‘maybe’ pile? John Scalzi, the author of the blog post “Ten Things About Literary Rejection” says that “I read each story until it no longer works for me…Like pornography or a good melon, I know entertaining work when I see it.”
It’s nice to know there’s a process. John does, however, reference Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s article “Slushkiller”, which provides basic manuscript characteristics contributing to rejection. Number one on the list is that the author must be functionally literate…seems easy enough. Number eight is a bit more biting; “It’s nice that the author is working on his/her problems, but the process would be better served by seeing a shrink than by writing novels”. And even if you can accomplish making your problems worth the read, you still might be rejected on the basis of number eleven, the publishing “…house isn’t going to get behind it”.

If the editing process is just as subjective as the art of writing, how is it possible to know what kind of writing will get published? How can you give everyone what they want and still keep something for yourself? As a currently unpublished writer, the author of this post doesn’t have the answers to these questions. You, the reader might be asking a question of your own; why is this person qualified to give me advice on becoming successful in this craft? The author of this post doesn’t have an answer for that question either. What the author does have is a guestimate , a shot in the dark, an angler fish in a deep sea trench; the successful writer is adept at drawing on personal observations and experiences in order to create a work that produces a sense of truth identifiable to the reader. It is absolutely personal. However, because writing is such a direct reflection of personal thoughts and ideas, the difficulty lies in being objective about one’s own work. Just as a mother is often the last to know she has an ugly baby, so it is with writers and their word babies.
Take this post for example. Were “reoccurring billboard on Career Highway” and the following personification really necessary? Was “angler fish in a deep sea trench” effective or clearly trying too hard? The author and perhaps one other reader might find these additions amusing, but readership doesn’t count if it’s only you and your mother. Part of being a successful writer is learning when something works and when it doesn’t and having the wherewithal to change it.

If you received a rejection letter in the past few weeks from the Sequoya Review, take heart. The literary staff members are by no means trained professionals; they are really just a band of ambitious writers elbowing for space on the page themselves. What they do have is a commitment to making this edition of The Sequoya Review the penultimate (or as close as they can get anyway). It is the absolute truth that the caliber of the submissions made for some knock down drag outs during the editing process. So instead of plotting your hateful revenge on the staff, take comfort in the fact that someone might have endured a wicked atomic wedgie in support for your piece.

Rejection is the name of the game. Everyone knows you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelet. A lesser writer might now include a message of hope in a few cleverly constructed anecdotes, like Gone With the Wind being rejected by twenty publishers, or an editor telling F. Scott Fitzgerald, “You’d have a decent book if you got rid that Gatsby character”, or maybe even Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school basketball team. However, this fledging writer is learning to work smarter, not harder, and that less is sometimes more. So instead, just this:
Keep writing.

It’s Getting Closer…

8 Mar

The 2011 edition is coming along nicely. The staff got a peek at the cover and a few of the inside pages last Thursday, and it’s looking really good. It’s the 35th anniversary of the Sequoya Review here at UTC and this year’s issue has some throwbacks to the past, as well as lots of new twists.

We’re also planning some cool events and promotions for the rest of the semester, so be on the lookout for more from the Sequoya Review as we head past spring break and into the final weeks of the year…

Writing Exercise

1 Mar

For those of you who may be having problems with your writing, here’s a quick exercise to help out:

Pick up the book closest to you and turn to page 74.

Go to the second paragraph and pick out the first interesting word you see.

Do this now! (Before you keep reading.)

Now that you’ve made your decision, take your word of choice and make it the first word of a poem.

So, lets say your word is “auxiliary,” you might begin the exercise by writing something like, “Auxiliary efforts are fruitless. Crash the plane, close the cell-walls of your birthright, your veins.”

(more…)

Advice on Life, from Writers with Tragic Deaths (and Oscar Wilde)

22 Feb

“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”
— Oscar Wilde

Let’s face it; writers are generally a pretty depressed lot. However that doesn’t stop them from giving some good advice on how to live one’s life. Perhaps you will do what they did not, and take it.
(more…)

The 2010 Fall Issue!

7 Dec

–”What?!” I can hear all you people say. Well it’s here: the 2010 Online-Only Fall Issue! Hope y’all are excited because it’s DA BOMB. Just keep on scrolling down this hear page to see all the best UTC and the community around here has to offer.

Meacham Writers’ Workshops

2 Nov

Meacham Writers’ Workshop is a series of readings and workshops which operate each semester, the most recent of which took place last Thursday, October 23 through Saturday, October 30.

Katie Christie, Meacham student coordinator and Memphis senior, said of the workshop that “It is the best opportunity that people in Chattanooga and in the surrounding area have to meet published authors and people who have already achieved something that they are working towards.”

Workshop director, Dr. Richard Jackson of the English department, spoke of Meacham’s impact as a whole. He said “What any literature does is change the normal way you think about things—it’s not necessarily the themes, but just the ways of thinking. This is the big humanizing thing about literature or any painting.”

Jackson uses examples of some of the visiting writers to explain. “A writer like Keith Flynn who is so music based with the way the reads as well as gospel song along with it—you see that this is a guy who thinks not so much in terms of big ideas but in terms of the music. And you look at someone like William Gay and you see a guy that is thinking about your average, everyday person, but pulling out of that something that is really interesting.”

(more…)

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