Passage I

A Literary Magazine

[1]

Whether or not wanting to work for Fairground, you have to be willing to push yourself. The editors of our triannual literary magazine is kept busy all year with a wide variety of tasks.

[2]

Our year begins in July, with fund-raising and promotion for the magazine, which presents a mixture of poetry, short stories, and essays. Our office fills up with subscription forms and fliers that we must sort, bundle, and tote to the post office to be mailed.

[3]

In August, we send letters to our favorite authors, inviting them to send manuscripts. Meanwhile, we’re receiving unsolicited submissions from other writers. During September and October, we read and evaluate hundreds’ of manuscripts.

[4]

Some offerings are scrawled in pencil; others, are expertly typed. Some arrive with letters proclaiming the writer’s genius; others may be written even more illegibly. We base our decisions only on the work itself. Actual typesetting will come later. The editors agree that every issue has to be good and has to reflect and show the varied diversity of the United States. Within they’re policy that’s plenty of room for discussion, and editors have to be ready to sprint the distance favoring their choices.

[5]

By November, we have selected enough material to fill three issues. Once we’ve found artwork suitable for the covers, editorial production, begins. We plan the contents of the year’s issues, page by page. It may snow just after New Year’s Day; the first issue is mailed to a typesetter. While that issue is being set, we complete the next one’s layout. Thus, as soon as an issue comes back from the typesetter for proofreading, the next can go in for typesetting. By this time, there’s plenty of material for three issues. After the proofreading is done, each issue is sent to a printer, who prints it, binds it, and delivers it to our door. Our office fills up again with the printed copies, ready to be mailed to subscribers, reviewers, and contributors. Finally, in midsummer, we ship out our third and final issue—just in time to begin another publishing year.