Print Edition: March 19, 2014
I entered a concrete poem to the Louden Singletree that I had received a lot of praise from my friends for and ultimately received an email saying that it was not suitable for publishing in Louden Singletree. I responded by asking if they would let me know why it was rejected so that I would know what type of material would be more suitable for their magazine and to date have not received a reply. Now I know that publishing companies routinely do not answer queries about rejections but surely Louden Singletree is not a big time publishing outfit with thousands of unwanted submissions. I even volunteered to assess submissions which I thought would be writing but agreed to assess fine art which I ended up doing entirely. However, I was not given the courtesy of a reply to my inquiry. Shouldn’t Louden Singletree at least reply to the volunteers who have taken time from their winter vacation to assess the work of other artists, what do readers think?
Dawn Emile
Louden Singletree’s response:
Hi Dawn,
First of all, we’d like to thank you for voicing your concerns and apologize for the fact that you’ve not yet received a reply to your inquiry. Sometimes things fall through the cracks – we’re stressed-out students too! We’re also sending you a personal email with a more specific response.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that, while Louden Singletree is a small publication, we strive to adhere to the standards of professional literary magazines. Therefore, it is our policy that feedback is not to be given to contributors – regardless of whether or not they volunteered as readers.
This year we received one hundred and seventy-five submissions to the magazine. Over winter break, we anonymously sent each piece to three readers who provided feedback and a “yes” or “no” vote. Pieces that were given at least two “yes” votes were then sent to us, and we ultimately decided which of the remaining submissions were suitable for publication. In the end, twenty-five pieces were chosen.
We (the Editorial Board) consist only of seven members. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time or manpower required for us to give feedback to all the submissions that weren’t chosen for publication. Like we said – we’re all students too!
We’re grateful that you submitted your work to us, and we’re incredibly appreciative of all the contributors and volunteer readers. We greatly enjoyed reading everyone’s work – year after year, the UFV community is proving itself exceptionally talented.
We hope to see more of your contributions in future issues!
Louden Singletree
Editorial Board, 2014
