Featured Author Gary Thompson Reading

     The Suisun Valley Review, and the Solano Community College, is pleased to announce that featured author, Gary Thompson, will be having a reading at the Solano Community College Library March 4, 2014 at 1:00. We invite everyone to come and enjoy selected poetry by Gary Thompson.

More to come on our featured author in the coming weeks.

Democracy is (not) so overated

      This literary magazine is the only student ran literary journal, to my mind, where the students have the absolute final say over the creative works published in the journal. What that means is this magazine is created entirely by the students, and we all have to come to an agreement on every little detail of our magazine. This democratic process can not be swayed for anything, not even the for the smallest thing such as the size of the font. Fortunately, as a class we don't come to shutdowns over issues quite as frequently as congress does, but disagreements still occur, which leads to our productive discussions. In order for a decision to be made, the class has to come to agree at a super-majority vote. If the idea can not get more than 75% of the class behind it, than we can't move forward. This includes the pieces that get submitted to us. If 75% of the class finds that the piece is good enough to be published, then it has a home in our magazine. This vote takes place after intense discussion over the work, and careful thought put into it. This deployment of the democratic process is where the quality is developed and insures that every voice is heard. Seeing a piece of creative work that you have advocated for publishing actually make it to the final product is extremely satisfying and demonstrates that at least 75% of the class sees the same qualities and had the same emotions evoked by the piece as you did. Now if our congressmen fought for some of their pieces of legislation as fiercely as students fight for some pieces of work.

Let's Feel Inspired

      February is here, and so it brings with it dark clouds, cold nights, the Olympics and the start of the editors over here at The Suisun Valley Review to come to a collective understanding of what a good piece of short fiction or poetry truly is. We all have gone out to the local bookstores in search of small literary magazines, such as ours, to find pieces published in them that we all really enjoy. We each picked one piece, and put them all together in a packet that acts as our textbook. This packet of published work has been the focal point for us editors for the week. Every single piece in the packet has been scrutinized for things such as its overall craft, and quality as written work. We had to ask ourselves questions like, “What makes a poem a good poem and what makes a piece of short fiction outstanding?” All of the work we will receive as submissions to our mag will be fantastic, but we need to figure out as a class what makes a piece great and what it makes it truly amazing. Our goal is to publish only the best and the awe inspiring. It’s a tough goal to accomplish, but by looking at the works already published, we have taken to first step in accomplishing this goal.

     We've also begun to look for things that inspire design. It’s time to start thinking about what the internal layout of our magazine should be, and there are a lot of things to consider, things that wouldn’t even have crossed one’s mind if they weren’t creating a literary magazine from scratch. Like the spacing between the first and last name of the published author, and the color of the page number. These are all tough decisions that eventually must be made. To make those decisions we have to look at things that inspire us as editors and as designers of a literary journal. We've looked at things such as the color of the ski boots worn by Olympic downhill skiers or even the splash page of a different literary journal. Sometimes it just takes a second to sit back and look at the world for the inspiring. Our goal is to create a design that inspires the reader.

A part of the class got together to create a display case showcasing the literary magazine in the English department here at Solano Community College. It really turned out great!

2014 SVR Display Case in the 700 building at SCC

New Beginnings - New Submissions

The Suisun Valley Review is back to work on the Spring 2014 issue, and us editors couldn't be more excited. We can't wait to review all of the fantastic work we will receive in the comings months and look forward to publishing the very best of the best. With the new years comes a new blogger running this site with the hopes that the readers of this blog with gather a better understanding of what it means to be an editor for the Suisun Valley Review. So follow us through this literary journey.

In the meantime, looking to submit?

We are proudly accepting submissions until March 24, 2014. We accept submissions in the form of Prose, Poetry, Short Fiction and Visual Media for it's Spring 2014 Edition!

Be part of the Suisin Valley Review, a long running and ward-wiining Solano College tradition. Now in its thirty-fourth year, Suisun Valley Review considers carefully all submission received, and publishes work by first-time contributrs and published authors/artists alike. No preference is given to a specific style or genre.

Literary Guidelines-
SVR is primarily a literary magazine, and accepts literary submissions in prose, poetry and short fiction. Submission should include:
1) A cover ltter including the contributor's name, address, phone number, and email.
2) A twi to five line biography of the author/artist.
3) Submissions in .doc, .docx, or .rtf is submitted via email.
4)  an SASE if submitted by US mail.

Please email all submissions to: suisunvalleyreview@gmail.com

Visual Guidelines:
SVR also accepts submissions in fine art, photography and 3D art.
1) Submissions should be submitted at 300 dpi in TIFF or .JPG formats to our email address.
2) No more than 3 images per artist should be submitted.
3) Any submitted image may be selected as the cover of the magazine.
4) We publish in full color!


We can't wait to review your work.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This has been a big couple of weeks for SVR's editors! We've gotten all of our pieces worked through in terms of voting, the cover together, insides together, and--oh, goody, this is the big one!--all of our letters sent off. In the meantime, check your emails and mailboxes, and make time for the release reading! Wednesday, May 15th, at the Solano Community College Library at 2pm. Of course, the address for SCC is 4000 Suisun Valley Road, Fairfield, CA, 94534. Hope to see you there!

Time's flying!

Everyone normally agrees that the beginning of the year goes by fast--but with only ten days remaining to submit to SVR, and our editors already having discussing submissions down pat, we here at SVR almost can't believe it. It feels like submission season has only just started! Our current mission this week has been to check out our current visual submissions and see if we've found our cover yet. There are a lot of great suggestions! Who knows? Maybe we'll have one really singing to us by the end of our spring break!

Eye Candy

     Things are finally picking up at the ole' SVR. This week, we've started looking at formal and official submissions--but don't panic! Even though we've now starting on looking through to which amazing writers we are going to include in this year's mag, there's still plenty of time to submit! Our deadline hasn't changed, and is still March 31st. If you need a reminder of our guidelines, click the poster below!

     That being said, along with literary submissions, we're currently getting our first look at just all of the gorgeous artwork we've been submitted this year. (Again, it's not too late! We haven't decided on a cover yet, either, so if you're an artist you know what to do!) Definitely a lot to look forward to in this year's publication. It's a shame we can't include everyone--there's a lot of infatuation with pieces floating around already!

New Display Case Design and Last Minute Practice

If you're a student at SCC who's ventured into the 700 building any time since last week, you've likely gotten a chance to see a revamping going on in our display case!

Check out the flyers with information about submitting that you can find around there, too, if you haven't! Actually, if you haven't voted, make sure you do so!

Deadline is March 31st! Happy submitting!

ANNNNND We're Off!

...to the start of voting on actual submissions that is. After our editors met again for the first time after a long one week break, (Do we sound like absolute bums yet?) we seem like we're all set to start judging the real things.
That said, we've moved into phase one of the operation: Most of our currently submitted work is viewable to our editors to start chit chattering away and reading. We know for a fact a great deal of them were anxious to get out of the kiddie stuff/practice discussions and onto the big boys.

So! If you submitted to us this year (and, uh, why shouldn't you? Our submissions are open to everyone, after all!) you're bound to start hearing from us soon!

Happy submitting!

Hibernation's Over!

It's that time of year again! You know, where you submit to your favorite literary magazine: Suisun Valley Review!

Much like bears, squirrels, other woodland beasts, and tortoises, SVR's editor committee takes a break about accepting and reviewing submissions until the spring. But with the arrival of Solano Community College's spring semester, so comes the arrival of this year's batch of editors! We're all super jazzed to get to work on reviewing submissions, and are very likely to jump right into that in the following weeks. Until then, submit!

Submissions are open to anyone, SCC student or not!, until March 31st, 2013!

You can check out our Facebook page for more details. (And friend us while you're at it! We're a social bunch!)

Suisun Valley Review's Facebook!

A Salute to SVR

The magazine is complete. That means it’s time for me to get really sentimental and teary-eyed.

The release reading was a happy success! We were pleased to welcome several of our authors, such as Laura Oliver, Ashleigh Cowan, and Nicholas Cittadino (a counselor at Solano Community College!). And we were also happy to meet the artist of the image we chose as our cover, Rita Okusako!

You all had the opportunity to see the cover (in very tiny form) on the SVR release reading poster, but here it is in all its glory:

Before I end my last blog (sniff) I would like to extend a few thanks. Firstly, thank you to everyone who has been following along with our adventure via this blog, and put up with my jokes both good and bad. 

I would also like to thank all of those who worked so diligently on this magazine all semester long—including our editors, our advisor, our school’s graphics department, and the Sacramento-based binder that put together the pieces with such great care. (As well as many others that I'm sure I have neglected—when you're but one cog, it's hard to see the whole machine!) 

And I would lastly (but not leastly!) would like to extend a thank-you to everyone who submitted: we would not have a magazine without you.

The End

It's Almost Here!

Yes, one week from today we will be releasing the 29th issue of the Suisun Valley Review! It will be available for all to buy and read beginning at 2 o'clock next Friday (the 18th) at our release reading. I've been dropping regular hints about this reading over the last month or two, and even in its planning stages it's starting to look spectacular.

We have a good number of poems and stories to be read by a variety of people. Some will be read by our very own editors, but many will likely be read by their writers! Other things to look forward to are: the winner and honorable mention of the Quinton Duval Award in Creative Writing will be announced; Patricia Killelea will be joining us again, and will be reading poetry featured in this issue; and of course, the delicious, home-baked cookies!

On behalf of all the editors of the Suisun Valley Review, we hope to see you all there!

Burning the Midnight Oil

So to speak. Huge leaps have been made this week—all decisions were made regarding submissions, the narrative was decided, and now all that’s left are the millions of little tweaks and fine-tuning.

But these things take a lot of energy—and time. Our editors have to keep up with the fast pace of this class in addition to their other classes—and the pace of this week alone has been dizzying! A lot of time was spent on the narrative (i.e., the order all the pieces in the magazine go in); this was an interesting process that took a lot of time because there was a lot more to it than sticking any ole piece anywhere (my personal, very incorrect impression of ordering poems/stories in books or magazines prior to taking this class). But it’s not that we haven’t been putting in these kind of hours all along; it’s just that now it’s far more condensed, since it's our turn to be “down to the wire." The magazine needs to be out to print very soon!

We can’t rest there, though. After the manuscript goes to print, we need to organize the release event, a special release reading held on May 18, 2012 from 2-4pm. The authors and poets published in this year’s edition of the Suisun Valley Review have been invited to read their works. There will be a booth where you can purchase SVR No. 29 and a booth for—yes, I was telling the truth in an earlier post—cookies. (I’ve seen the current sign-ups for cookie baking. Come for SVR, stay for the cookies, because they will be amazing!)

“Even a Word Has a Story”

On Tuesday, Solano Community College was pleased to welcome Patricia Killelea. Ms. Killelea is a former Solano student who is also our poet feature for the 2012 edition of the Suisun Valley Review. It’s more of a homecoming than anything, really; not only is she a former student, but she has also been published in the Suisun Valley Review before!

For the first half of the hour, Killelea read to us from her book of poems: “Other Suns.” A Native American Studies doctoral student, Killelea incorporates Native American mythology and imagery in many of her poems, such as in “Report: Police Shoot Baby Deer in Oakland for No Reason.” (We were also treated to “Long Blue Coat,” which was the poem published in the Suisun Valley Review.) Her poems are also influenced by the natural world, particularly the marshes of northern California. When she reads aloud, she is so passionate that her shoulders rock with the words, punctuating phrases.

After the reading, she answered questions and spoke to many qualities of poetry. One of the most important qualities is sound: Killelea says, “Poems weren’t meant to be on paper,” for they began only as the spoken word, long before language was written. While she stresses that sound is not more important than the subject matter, it is a very important part of her poetry, and can even become the subject matter in some cases.

Killelea prefers writing poetry over writing fiction prose; she feels more comfortable in this condensed form. But she doesn’t feel far from stories, because poems have stories just as prose does. She told us, “Even a word has a story.”

The Great Split

I am of the opinion that half of us SVR editors live in Japan, and half of us live in France. (Actually, we’re all living in California, but metaphorically speaking, when it comes to what we perceive to be great literature, we’re on different continents.)

To date, we have voted on several packets, and the number of pieces that are most likely going into the magazine are currently, well, three. The number of pieces that might go into the magazine are around a dozen. The number of pieces we have rejected are significantly and apologetically larger. Even though we have still a great many more submissions to review, we don’t appear to be agreeing on very much. So, what do we do?

When we vote for pieces to go into the magazine, we inevitably end up with three categories: “yes” pieces, “maybe” pieces, and our least-favorite category, “no” pieces. If we don’t have enough “yes” pieces, we will dip into the “maybe” category, considering first the pieces with the highest number of yes votes. SVR editors have never before needed to do this—this might be our first year!

From the Horse's Mouth

Yes, that is the sound of tumbleweed you hear. There's not much to report, because we're students as well as editors - and it's spring break. No classes, nothing new, nothing to report. Just the reading, which is fun for us, but boring for you to hear about.

So in anticipation of this most potentially-boring blog week, we decided to prepare a few lines. I asked a few of my fellow editors to pen, type, carve, or stamp a few words about what being an editor, being a part of the magazine and this whole process, is like for them. Here's what they came up with:

I feel like a judge from American Idol. If Randy and Simon had a bastard child, I would be that child.

I'm a wine-and-dine sort of editor. You've gotta take me to dinner, feed me, make me laugh—you know. Basics.

As a past Editor of the Suisun Valley Review, I feel as though I have learned not only about being an editor, but also how to communicate ideas effectively and evaluate literary craft in a way that can only be supported through this classroom model. It's all about learning what it means to take on the role and responsibilities of an editor because the students are publishing a real magazine by the end of Spring.

Being a part of SVR has introduced me to a wonderful world of literature that I never knew about and never want to leave.

Five truths: it's hard; it's easy; it's fun; it's humbling; it's one of the coolest things I've ever done. But one thing is certain: the editing process, for me, with this magazine, will never be frightfully devoid of chocolate. Or good poems. And that's pretty cool.

As a writer, it is really interesting and beneficial to see how work is received by the editors. I have learned as an editor to be critical of each piece while still being able to appreciate it, and I've found that balance to be quite delicate. I have also been floored by the quality of the work that has been submitted to our magazine and I have fallen in love with a few pieces already.

Progress on the Cover Front

You’ve already heard that we were working on our internal layout some weeks ago. Well, the truth is, we couldn’t do much more on that front until we took a huge step with the cover layout. This week, we took that step:

The 2012 Suisun Valley Review has a cover image!

There’s still a lot to do before our cover will be ready for print, but this was the biggest job to do. And what a chore it was! We got so many great art submissions this season. We made a dozen cover mocks or so, of several different images, but we could only choose one. Our cover image choices ranged from silly and whimsical to elegant and majestic.

Once we got all the most popular choices together, we had to sit down and vote. We voted once to get our top five, a second time to get our top three, and a third time to get our top one.

What was our top one?

You’ll have to wait until the magazine is published!

(Oooh, I hate cliffhangers, too! Sorry, folks.)

Down to the Wire

This has been another exciting week! On Tuesday, Solano Community College welcomed Clive Rosengren. He read to us from his new book, Murder Unscripted, and took questions afterwards; in doing so, he shared some interesting insights. He lauded writing groups, saying that they’re good pressure to keep you going, and they catch typos. Rosengren himself is a member of a writing group he dubbed the “Monday Mayhem.”

Further along in the hour, Rosengren discussed some parallels he found between acting and writing. What do the two have in common? Instinct. He also shared that he writes cinematically: he likes to form pictures in his mind as he writes; he wants to visualize things as they unfold.

And of course, the other exciting aspect of this week is that it’s been the last week for submissions! We will be accepting submissions until tomorrow at midnight. (You should know I'm working very hard to bite back a coach-to-pumpkin joke.) And so, as we’re down to the wire (for submissions, at least—we’ve still got over a month to go for the magazine to be finished!), I present to you my top three reasons why you should submit before the photo finish:

1. You have nothing to lose! Submission is free. And if you’re accepted, you’ll receive two free contributor’s copies of the Suisun Valley Review.
2. There’s a really cool release reading at the end of all this. If you’re accepted, you’re invited to read your work aloud at this awesome reading. And if you’re not accepted, you’re still invited!
3. Getting tired of my maddening puns? Write something funny and submit it. Show me what real humor’s all about!

Thank you to everyone who has already submitted!

(P.S.: I’m not kidding about how cool that release reading is. There will be cookies. Delicious, home-baked cookies. It's an SVR tradition that the editors bake for the occasion.)

Super Features

It’s a bird, it’s a plane—(it’s way too cheesy?)

This is probably the most exciting week we’ve had thus far (and the ante is only going up from here!). Each year, we have a featured author or poet who graciously does an interview with us; we publish both the interview and an original work or works from the author/poet in the Suisun Valley Review.

This week, we finalized the plans for Mr. Clive Rosengren to visit. A mystery author and established actor, Rosengren will be at Solano Community College next week, on March 27, 2012, from 12:30 to 1:30. We’re really looking forward to meeting him and hearing what he has to say about his latest book, Murder Unscripted, writing, publishing, and anything in-between.

In April, we also hope to meet our second feature for the spring 2012 issue, Ms. Patricia Killelea. Killelea is a poet who graduated from our very own Solano Community College once upon a time. She has a volume of poetry called Other Suns, and will also have an interview and original pieces published in this year’s edition of the Suisun Valley Review.

Meanwhile, next week we will begin our discussions of this year’s submissions! (See, didn’t I say it would only get more exciting from here?) Send in your submissions before it’s too late—there’s one week left! We accept submissions of short fiction, poetry, and art. (I know you talented people are out there reading this. I can feel your vibes through the computer screen.)

If you would like to know more about our features, click here for Clive Rosengren’s website and here for Patricia Killelea’s.

If you would like to submit, please send your work or works to suisunvalleyreview@gmail.com. Submission guidelines may be found here.

Progress on the Layout Front

Over the last few weeks, some of our graphics-savvy editors took the time to put together mock layouts (in other words, possible ways that we could format our magazine). There were a wide variety of colors, fonts, spacing and alignments.

This last Monday, the committee assigned to designing the layout of the inside of the magazine (go Team Innards!) put together a semi-final draft of what our layout could/should/might look like. It incorporated ideas from all of the mocks that were previously submitted.

Then we threw the semi-final mock onto the big screen for the rest of the editors to review. They had some additional suggestions, but for the most part, everyone seemed to like what had been done. We will give the layout one more pass before we all give it the salutary nod of completion and turn our focus to something else.

There’s still going to be some continual, inevitable tweaking of the internal layout throughout the next two months, so the job’s not “done” done. However, we’re confident that the final layout will be satisfying and pristine. And maybe a teensy bit flashy, but that will depend on the colors we choose, which will likely be taken from the cover. That will be one of our foci for next week: picking out which of our art submissions we think might be good cover choices.