Hello folks, your friendly neighborhood poetry intern here. I wanted to take the opportunity to put on my “myth-buster” cap and clear up some of the misconceptions, put to bed some of the rumors that have been floating around about Blue Mesa Review. So here we go:

1: “I didn’t know BMR was still around.” If this were the case, I wouldn’t be posting this, and this blog wouldn’t even exist. We do not read or conduct business during the summer, simply because nobody is on campus at that time. Additionally, our website went down in July, which probably lent credence to the rumor. However, our website is back up, we have amassed a small army of readers, and we are now chugging along—full steam ahead.

2. “What’s the difference between ‘multiple submissions’ and ‘simultaneous submissions?’” I’m glad you asked. Actually, nobody asked, but I’m pretending someone did, ‘cause there seems to be a lot of confusion about this. “Multiple submissions” means that you are sending us more than one submission at a time. Blue Mesa Review does not accept multiple submissions. We ask that submitters wait for a response before submitting again. “Simultaneous submissions” refer to a submission that is sent to more than one magazine or journal at the same time. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but ask to be informed right away if your piece is accepted anywhere else.

4. “I sent in a story a few weeks ago. Has it been entered in your Fiction Contest?”  No. Our fiction contest is separate from our usual reading.  We accept manuscripts all year, though the ones we receive in the summer will have a longer response time. These stories get placed in the bottom of a large stack of manuscripts and are read when our volunteer readers get to them (Now that we’re past the summer backlog, this waiting time is about 6-8 weeks). If they are accepted, they may appear in the next issue, or be held over for publication in a future issue. Fiction Contest entries, on the other hand, will get a guaranteed reading before press time, and the winner is assured of a prominent position in the next issue of Blue Mesa Review (not to mention the $1,000 prize, the kudos, the accolades and all the frills that come with having won a literary award).

5. “What’s this I hear about BMR ‘flipping out?’” If you missed an earlier post, you may not know that for issue 23, we are bring back our very successful “flip issue.” The idea is that one side of the magazine will be consist of literature that is  traditional in it’s structure, form or subject matter. Please do not confuse “traditional” with “boring.” The emphasis for the traditional section is on interesting, exciting and well crafted manuscripts. Our emphasis on the expremental side will also be on well-crafted writing, but with a much broader range of experimentation.  This includes experementation with blending visual and written art, stories told from unusal points of view, or any other expirement with literature you’d care to try. The only limitation we have is that we can only print black and white.

6. “What happened to question #3?” Nothing. I just wanted to be sure you’re paying attention.

Well, that’s all for now. Happy writing!