One of my favorite Simpsons Episodes involves Bart, Homer and Lisa watching a TV program called “When Buildings Collapse.” The entire point of the program is to see building after building fall down, but during the show Homer comments “I didn’t think it was going to fall over.”
I now use that phrase when it seems like something is never ever going to happen: a car making a slow left turn, a waiter taking too long bringing food. “I didn’t think it was going to fall over.”
And I have to admit that phrase has applied to each of our six issues of Superstition Review.
Every semester I gather 15-20 undergraduate student interns with varying levels of experience. I put them through “lit mag boot camp,” and within a few weeks they are corresponding with authors, reading and rating submissions, designing advertisements, creating blog posts, gathering bios and headshots, editing endless web pages, organizing readings on and off campus. And maybe most importantly, they are learning how REAL deadlines work in the field of publishing. Like, if your building doesn’t fall over NOW the next building can’t go up.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I do this all online. Our work is done through Blackboard, Google Docs and Submishmash.
We take about 14 weeks to put together each of the issues, which we publish in December and May. By the time the end of the semester rolls around, I’m never quite sure that the building is going to fall over.
But thanks to the support of my Dean Fred Corey, my Department Head Ian Moulton, my faculty advisors Claire Lauer, Kristin Lacroix, Judith Van, Mark Haunschild, Rebecca Byrkit, and Sherry Rankins-Robertson; and also to my endlessly brave and diligent and kind students, we now have six pretty impressive buildings under our belts.
After each issue is published and I get a good deep breath, I get to enjoy what my students have accomplished. In this Issue alone we feature work from (and interviews with) 66 artists, poets and writers from all over the nation. I hope you will make a cup of tea, grab your laptop or iPad, and enjoy the hard work of my talented students and our esteemed contributors.
Sincerely,
Patricia Colleen Murphy
Managing Editor, Superstition Review