The State of Things from the Editor's View

Abstract

235 The State of Things from the Editor's View As I am looking ahead to volume 40 of the Rocky Mountain Review, which begins with the next number, and looking back on the publication of my first issue of articles and reviews just one year ago, it seems an appropriate time to let you as members of the RMMLA know a bit about the state of things from the editor's view. After starting off with some apprehension, allayed only a bit by my predecessor David Foster's generous help and encouragement, I have now begun to feel comfortable with the day-to-day operation. Despite a few problems and a few mistakes, the issues have come out as desired and I haven't received any acrimonious letters (please don't take this as an indication that I would like some). Nonetheless, I have one goal that is hard to achieve without the help of the membership — so this is partly a report and partly an appeal to you for that help. The principal goal, which I know David had before me, is to achieve a greater diversity in the articles and the book reviews. Over a long period, perhaps we have considerable diversity, but subject areas covered seem to cluster so that in an issue, or even a volume, there is not the diversity I would hope for. For instance, after David Foster completed his last issue, in late spring of 1984, he sent me several articles accepted but not yet published, including two written on Spanish and two on German subjects (in fact, both on Heine). For the first several months of my editorship, I saw some additional foreign language and literature submissions in Spanish and German and very little in French or Italian or some ofthe other modern languages. I tried in various informal ways to encourage submissions in some of these omitted areas, and whether because of that or, more likely, by the whims of Chance, suddenly a number of French literature articles began to appear in the mail. And German and Spanish (only momentarily, I hope) all but dried up. But let me describe the picture more specifically. Since I began receiving manuscripts in May 1984, 55 articles have been sent, along with numerous poetry and short fiction submissions (Naomi Lindstrom, who receives most of the creative writing submissions directly, reports 22 instances of such work in the past year and a half), and two works of translation, one poetry and one prose. These break down as follows (some categories are a little loose because some articles cross boundaries ): 19 articles in British literature; 12 articles, American literature; 8 articles, French; 4 articles, Spanish; 2 articles, German; 2 articles, linguistics; 2 articles, composition; 1 article, Russian; 1 article, Italian; 1 article, Native American literature; 1 article, Comparative Literature; 2 articles roughly classifiable as popular culture. These were in addition to the materials that I had on hand from David Foster, six accepted articles and several new or re-submissions still being considered by readers. The responses to these articles can be classified in four groups: accepted, returned, returned with recommendation to revise and resubmit, and pending (i.e., still with the readers). Of the 55 articles I have received, 11 were recommended for acceptance with only minor changes, or none, suggested. Another 10 were recommended for resubmission, with substantial changes, at the author's discretion; so far one has come back and is now with readers a second time. Of the 55, 22 were not recommended for publication and have been returned to their authors, and 12 are pending, including the resubmission referred to above. Thus, the acceptance rate overall is 20%, though in fact, breaking the figures down by area shows that British (5 out of 19 accepted), American (3 out of 12), and French (2 out of 8) literature 236Rocky Mountain Review have each had exactly, or almost exactly, 25% acceptance rates and account for all but one of the articles accepted. This is, I suspect, another whim of Chance, especially considering that the six accepted articles David left with me divided thus: 2 Spanish, 2 German, 1 Russian, and 1 British...