SQF: Why did you start this magazine?
Allison Blevins: Harbor Review began shortly after the birth of my third child. Motherhood, in many ways, can be isolating. Despite working as a professor and publishing my own poetry, I still felt disconnected and needed another creative outlet. Harbor Review was my way of reaching out to a larger creative community. Additionally, I have always had an obsession with ekphrasis, and I published my ekphrastic chapbook Letters to Joan (Lithic Press, 2019) shortly after Harbor Review began publishing. The magazine was a way for me to continue that obsession but move on to new obsessions in my writing.
SQF: What are the top three things you look for in a submission and why?
AB: I want to be surprised. This can be a lovely, sharp turn at the end of a poem or language or lineation or content. I want a submission to make me feel. I look for poems that linger under the skin and unsettle or ache. If a poem sticks with me after I've left the computer and gone to wash dishes or brush my teeth, it may be a poem for us. Finally, I want to publish poems that deserve a break. What I've learned as an editor is that there is far more excellent work out there than I can publish. I want to publish the poem that has been searching for the right home.
SQF: What most often turns you off to a submission?
AB: It is a fairly common sentiment that editors don't like submissions that don't follow their guidelines. This is true at Harbor Review. Although, as a writer, I know mistakes happen, and I try to always be understanding of that truth. I also have a hard rule that submissions should be free of grammar and punctuation errors. We make very few edits, and our expectation is that work comes to us after several revisions and ready to publish.
SQF: What do you look for in the opening paragraph(s)/stanza(s) of a submission?
AB: I don't have expectations for the opening of a poem. We read every poem all the way through, often several times. Sometimes, poems build and can't be dismissed based off of a humble beginning. However, the best poems usually delight all the way through.
SQF: What are The Editor’s Chapbook Prize and The Washburn Chapbook Prize?
AB: The Editor's Prize and the The Washburn Prize are our micro chapbook competitions. Both competitions are for a collection of 10 poems; the winner of each receives publication online and $200. The Editor's Prize winner is selected by me, and the competition is open to anyone. The Washburn Prize winner is selected by the poet Laura Lee Washburn, and the competition is open to women or non-binary writers. Our definition of woman includes all women, including transgender and all female-identifying individuals. Please check our guidelines here.
You can read our first Washburn Prize winning micro chapbook Idiom by Merridawn Duckler online at https://www.harbor-review.com/idiom. One of the benefits of publishing a micro chapbook online is the wide reading audience your book will reach. Your chapbook has the opportunity to be read by thousands of visitors to our website each month, and we work hard to promote the work of our author's.
SQF: What one question on this topic do you wish I'd asked that I didn't? And how would you answer it?
AB: I wish you'd asked me what the culture is like at Harbor Review or if our staff has a collective ideology. We are are group that values and respects diversity. We have a diverse group of editors, and we are committed to publishing diverse writers and artists. We uphold feminist values in the running of the magazine and competitions, in hiring practices, reading policies, and all aspects of the work we do. Additionally, we are all working writers and artists, so we love reading and viewing submissions, we love curating the issues, and we love supporting the writers and artists that are part of the Harbor Review family. Every aspect of Harbor Review is volunteer based; we do this because we love it and want to give back to our creative community.
Thank you, Allison. We all appreciate your taking time from your busy schedule to participate in this project.
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