"Our Decisions are Born Out of Conversations." A Chat with Gerald Maa, Editor of The Georgia Review

Editor of prestigious university lit mag takes us behind the scenes

Hello, hello! I bring news of another editor interview!

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Gerald Maa, Editor of The Georgia Review. One of the nation’s most prestigious lit mags, The Georgia Review was founded in 1947, has published literary luminaries alongside emerging writers, and has received numerous awards.

The magazine has changed editorial hands several times over the decades, with Gerald taking the helm in 2019. He moved to Georgia for the position, after completing a PhD at University of California, Irvine, and after co-founding of The Asian American Literary Review in 2010.

As Editor, Gerald is especially interested in conversations. The magazine’s About page states, “Convinced that communities thrive when built on dialogue that honors the difference between any two interlocutors, we publish imaginative work that challenges us to reconsider any line, distinction, or thought in danger of becoming too rigid or neat, so that our readers can continue the conversations in their own lives.”

As far as the editorial process goes, Gerald said, “Our decisions are born out of conversations.” He described lively and passionate conversations among the editors who take each submission seriously and consider to the work with great attention. Gerald thinks of his role not so much as a gatekeeper, but as an enthusiast, seeking work that broadens ideas of what literature is, and that can evoke conversations among the journal’s readers.

Gerald also described a rigorous process of conversing with writers. In fact, few pieces make it into Georgia Review without “editorial engagement.” Gerald took us through his experience with one writer, whose story generated intense debate among the editors, then a series of back-and-forths, and revisions that eventually led to the story’s successful publication.

The Georgia Review gets about 100,000 submissions per year. So what keeps Gerald invested in all this work? Particularly when he’s balancing the demands of raising two little ones at home?

Gerald emphasized the importance of literary magazines as entities that exist outside the crude market forces of capitalism. The vast majority of lit mags are not profitable. What he is in it for is what he called a feeling of “hermetic euphoria,” or “the completely immersive” space of a poem or a story. And, of course, for the human connection. He urged us all to think of magazines as “ongoing conversations with a friend.”

Submissions to this magazine are open now.

All this, and so very much more, in today’s video.

To everyone who came out to watch, thank you for tuning in! Your faces are my very own four-leaf clover!

And, of course, thanks to Gerald for taking the time to peel back the curtain of another great and mighty little magazine.

Happy viewing!