Lit Mag Reading Club Chat: Southern Review, Fall 2022

Q & A with Sacha Idell, Editor of The Southern Review

Another Lit Mag Reading Club Q & A is in the books!

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Sacha Idell, Prose Editor of The Southern Review. This magazine is “one of the nation’s premier literary journals” and “strives to discover and promote a diverse array of engaging, relevant, and challenging literature—including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation from literary luminaries as well as the best established and emerging writers.”

Sacha took us through the editorial process, sharing many helpful and inspiring tidbits. For one, the work published in the magazine is about 90% from the slush pile. For another, most of the writers published here have tried the magazine repeatedly before breaking into its pages. Sacha encourages all writers to keep trying, noting that three to four rejections before acceptance is the norm.

Sacha has spent time studying Japanese literature, so we took a short but fascinating detour away from this magazine and into different cultural approaches to the craft of fiction. How is conflict portrayed in different ways in different cultures? How can parallel stories evoke conflict as relational rather than confrontational? We dug into this, as well as Sacha’s special interest in translation and some of the excellent translations in this particular issue.

I have to say, it’s a real treat to read these magazines and then talk to the editors about the work they chose. In our conversation we discussed a few stories in greater depth and got to hear exactly why these pieces were selected. If you’re on the fence about the Lit Mag Reading Club, I hope you will consider signing up. It’s mighty educational!

Anyway, if you’re thinking about what to submit to this magazine, Sacha doesn’t want you to worry about form or genre too much. What he wants, quite simply, is for you to submit the work that you’re most excited about, that quirky wonderful piece you think may not fit anywhere else.

There’s much more in this video. Not least of all some very helpful info about the best time of year to submit to the magazine in order to get the speediest response.

Thanks to everyone who came out today to participate. If you haven’t yet commented on the discussion thread, go do so! Share your ideas! Impart your wisdoms! Speak your beautiful minds!

And, of course, thanks to Sacha, for taking the time to bring us inside another lovely little magazine.