Q&A with the Editors of The Cincinnati Review

The fourth edition of

The Cincinnati Review

was recently published, and editors are currently working on the summer copy. With an average of 40 manuscripts per day coming in from across the country and abroad, the young magazine is clearly attracting attention. Conversations with fiction, poetry, and managing editors, Brock Clarke, Don Bogen, and Nicola Mason explain why.

Q: How did the idea for the publication evolve?

A: Prior to my arrival at UC (I started teaching here in 2001), people in the English Department wrote a proposal and applied for a number of grants because they believed that a department and creative writing program of our stature should have a creative writing magazine, and they were right. It’s funded through a number of grants--most notably from the Taft and Schiff Foundations. (Clarke)

Q: Talk a little about what each issue includes.

A: The creative work in the magazine runs the gamut--largely because the genre editors have wide-ranging tastes. In a given issue you’ll find stories that are straight realism as well as those that are experimental or fantastic in concept or style. We publish some work that is humorous and other work that’s highly serious. The same goes with the poetry--long poems, short poems, narrative and lyric poems, with both elaborate and unadorned styles. We’re committed to publishing fresh new voices in addition to well-known writers, and we publish essays on many subjects. (Mason)

Q: What’s unique about the magazine?

A: One unique offering is its book reviews. Each issue prints multiple reviews of the same book in order to provide rich and disparate commentary on the work. The books themselves are selected with care, and as one reviewer has noted, these reviews “throw no softballs.” In addition to fine creative and critical work, another unique feature is a portfolio of full-color artwork in every issue. The second issue included two such inserts--eight lovely paintings by Deborah Morrissey-McGoff, as well as “Seasoned Chairs for a Child,” a collaboration between Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.D. Snodgrass and internationally renowned visual artist DeLoss McGraw. (Mason)

Q: How do you find material?

A: Much of it comes over the transom; some of it we solicit from people whose work we know of and admire. (Clarke) We're getting strong submissions from all over these days. Several prominent poets have been kind enough to send work our way. For this fall's issue, the poet and librettist J.D. McClatchy, who edits

The Yale Review

, gave us a longer poem with the intriguing title "Poem Beginning with a Line Spoken, I Am Told, in My Sleep." Rosanna Warren not only contributed an illuminating essay on the prominent British poet Geoffrey Hill but successfully twisted Hill's arm to get us one of his new poems--a rare accomplishment, as he does not send out much work. The work that comes in "over the transom" is full of surprises. In this fall's issue we have a mysteriously beautiful poem spoken by fish, of all things--Ellen Wehle's "Koi Meditation on Long Illness" and a dream-like narrative, "sleep sleep" from the New Zealand poet James Norcliffe. The former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins sent us some typically sharp and funny poems completely out of the blue. (Bogen)

Q: Do you have any information about your typical reader?

A: I’d say it’s simply someone who enjoys good stories, good books, fine language, fine art, and a lot of variety. (Mason)

Q: How would you evaluate the success of the

Review

thus far?

A: It's clear that the word is out in the poetry community. I think all this strong work is coming in not just because of the range and quality of work we publish but partly because of the magazine's appearance. It has "high production values," as they say, with gorgeous, varied covers and artists' portfolios inside. (Bogen) I’d say we’ve done well--our stories and poems have already been included in annual literary anthologies, and I’ve a gotten a lot of positive feedback from writers and readers in other cities, other states, and even other countries. (Clarke)

Information about how to subscribe to

the Cincinnati Review

and about past and upcoming editions is available

online

.