Editor Envy

By Lindsey Stockton Frantz, Bluegrass Writers Studio Alumnus

            When Dr. Young Smith approached me a few years ago and asked if I’d like to be Editor-in-Chief of Jelly Bucket--the Bluegrass Writers Studio’s literary journal--I was thrilled. I’d worked on the journal as production manager and I thought I was fully prepared for the duties being Editor-in-Chief entailed. In retrospect, my naïveté is almost endearing. Almost.

            As the production manager of the second issue, I had my hands on every piece of fiction, nonfiction, prose, and visual art that went into the journal. I placed each piece in the journal and formatted each page. It was very time-consuming and very rewarding. I thought moving from that position for issue three would be a break.

            As Editor, I was responsible for managing what each genre editor received, each letter of acceptance and decline, enforcing deadlines and due dates, and of course, reading and editing. At first, I longed for my spot in front of the Mac screen, pulling up InDesign and Photoshop. However, after a time, I settled into my new role and enjoyed the process.

            I didn’t read every submission we received like the genre editors did--they worked extremely hard to sift through all the work we got and choose the best of the best. In the end, I approved all of their choices, and helped them make decisions about those pieces that were right on the verge. It was a time consuming labor of love, and in the end, I think we all felt accomplished when we had beautiful copies of our Jelly Bucket issue three in our hands.

            It was a volunteer position that took up hours of time each day. But what I learned and experienced during that time outweighed all the difficult parts of the job. Now, two years later, I wish that I could work on each new issue of Jelly Bucket as it comes out. The new crop of editors is reading and deciding on the best fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and text-as-art for issue six – you can submit work at jellybucket.submittable.com/submit.

            To read selections from all five issues of Jelly Bucket, visit creativewriting.eku.edu/jelly-bucket. There, you can also find out what that crazy name means.

Contact Information

Kristen Thompson
kristen.thompson@eku.edu

Published on February 20, 2014